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Indian handicraft exports experiences slowdown in Q1

19
Jul '12

Indian handicraft industry witnessed a slow export growth during the first quarter of the current fiscal, which is mainly due to slump in demand from the Western markets, particularly from the EU and the US.

According to the provisional data released by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), a nodal agency for promotion of Indian handicrafts, handicraft exports from the country increased by US$ 36.41 million from April-June 2011’s US$ 555.22 million to US$ 591.36 million during April-June this year, which is a meagre rise of 6.51 percent.

However, when calculated in terms of the Indian currency, exports grew strongly during first quarter of the current fiscal from April-June 2011’s Rs. 24.93 billion to Rs. 31.86 billion, showing a year-on-year rise of 27.78 percent.

According to experts, deceleration in Indian Rupee has helped the sector’s exports.

Though demand slowdown in key western markets like the EU and the US are holding back the country’s handicraft export growth, EPCH is eyeing good potential emerging markets like Africa, Middle East and Latin America and it expects the sector’s export growth rate to rise on its own in the coming months.

EPCH said that despite financial slump in West Europe, it is making all efforts to achieve the current fiscal’s handicraft export target of US$ 3.3 billion.

As per the EPCH data, shawls as artwares were one of the highly sought after items in the export market and its exports grew by 28.92 percent in dollar terms during the first quarter.

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