Gujarat textile industry has been witnessing a rise both in its export and domestic orders, says Gaurang Bhagat, President of the Ahmedabad-based New Cloth Market and Trade Committee Chairman of Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI). After facing huge financial challenges from April to July period this financial year due to pandemic and lockdown, the state’s textile industry started seeing demand from August onwards as queries began pouring in both from domestic and international markets. “Most of the textile manufacturers got significant orders from all parts of India by Diwali because of which they were able to wipe out unsold inventories as well as the entire textile value chain experienced unprecedented business opportunities, especially in hubs like Surat and Ahmedabad,” commented Gaurang. The products which have been experiencing escalated demand are home textile; cotton and synthetic fabric; and yarns. According to Gaurang, many textile importers from the USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand have decided to move from China, Pakistan and Turkey and shift their textile sourcing base to India in 2020. “The state’s textile industry is also getting benefits from the online textile exhibition FABEXA 2020 which saw presence of 52 countries and the efforts of the organisers seem to be translating into real business,” informed Gaurang. The companies like Welspun India and Nanadan Terry have also endorsed what Gaurang has said. Sanjeev Sancheti, CFO, Welspun India, said that the domestic textile players are at an advantageous position seeing the decisions of the global brands of not taking risk and be dependent on any single country for sourcing needs in pandemic. Anand Prakash, GM of Ahmedabad-based Nandan Terry, asserted that the retailers in Europe, USA and other potential markets have run out of inventories and need stocking for 4 to 5 months, which is a huge quantity. “Pakistan- and Turkey-based textile suppliers have capacity restrictions, while China has been facing trust deficit due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Thereby, the Indian textile industry is benefitting,” opined Prakash.
