Business

ITF Makes A Strong Case For High-End Apparel Exports

20% of Indian apparel exports constitute items below US$ 3 per apparel
43% constitutes items below US$ 6 per apparel
Single largest exported item priced at US$ 5 per apparel

The Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF) has appealed to the government and the industry to create an eco-system that will push the industry towards manufacturing of high–value products. The ITF also stressed the need for large scale apparel manufacturing for bringing down the cost of production of low value products. The government too needs to incentivise large scale production. This appeal from ITF follows a recent study it conducted on India’s apparel exports, and the share of high value products in the export basket. The findings are interesting. Of the total apparel exports from India, 20.34% of exports constitute items with unit value realization (UVR) between US$ 1-2.9. Apparels with UVR between US$ 3-3.9 account for 9.11% of total apparel exports. And apparel with UVRs between US$ 4-4.9 make up just 1.42% of total exports. What is a surprising finding is that moving further up the value chain, Indian apparel exports are doing better. Apparel with UVRs between US$ 5-59 account for 11.77% of total apparel exports, UVRs between US$ 6-6.9 account for 15.37% of total exports, while apparel with UVRs above US$ 9 account for 17.81% of total exports. This is a fairly clear indication that India’s marketing capabilities (and not just manufacturing capabilities) for high-end apparel are getting stronger. And with increasing competition from Bangladesh, and in the years to come from African countries, it is time for the Indian apparel exporters to gradually vacate the commodity space. Meanwhile, the ITF is now conducting a survey to find out about the apparel export price realisation trends in the southern region.