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India's carpet exports exceed US$800mn target in FY12

01
Jun '12

Carpet exports from India have crossed the target of US$ 800 million set for the fiscal year 2011-12, owing to weakening of currency and increase in cost of production.

India exported carpets worth US$ 808 million during the last fiscal year, registering a 19 percent growth compared to 2010-11, according to the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC).

“The carpet manufacturers and exporters in India are very flexible. They make customized products as per the demand, desired prices, colour and size specifications, etc. which other countries are not able to do, be it for small quantity or bigger quantity. This is one reason for growth in India's carpet exports,” Mr. SN Singh, Chairman, CEPC, told fibre2fashion.

“Secondly, the weakening of Indian rupee has also benefited us with respect to our older consignments. We got a benefit of around 17 percent,” he adds.

“The increase in labour charges led to a rise in cost of production. So, the carpet export growth is more in value terms rather than in volume terms,” he avers.

The carpet export target has been achieved despite a lack of demand in India's traditional markets of the US and Europe due to ongoing financial crisis in those countries.

For the last 5-6 years, CEPC has been making efforts to explore new markets and it has been successful in discovering new markets in Latin America and Africa, in addition to Russia, Syria and South Africa. “Indian carpets were earlier exported to these markets through indirect routes, but now these can be exported to these destinations directly,” says Mr. Singh.

Briefing about the problems faced by Indian carpet manufacturing industry, he says, “There is shortage of weavers due to the Government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). The retired weavers are not being replaced by new young weavers.”

“Hence, we have requested the Government to train at least 20,000-25,000 young people in the art of carpet weaving, in order to achieve the export targets during the coming years,” he reveals.

CEPC has projected India's carpet exports to grow by another 19-20 percent during next fiscal to touch US$ 960 million.

In India, carpet production is mainly carried out in Benaras, Mirzapur, Agra, Shahjahanpur, Meerut, Srinagar and Panipat towns. Carpet production has also started in Chennai and some towns of Gujarat.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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