Following a lacklustre performance with a contraction of 14 per cent in knitwear exports in 2023–24, India’s textile export hub Tiruppur is back in positive terrain in 2024–25, with the first three months seeing a rise in exports. This revival is mainly driven by major orders from global players like Primark, Tesco, George at ASDA, and Decathlon.
While in April it was marginal at 1.5 per cent, May and June saw a rise of over 11.4 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively. Not just the above, the region is seeing a beeline of brands to place orders, which include US players like GAP, Carter’s, Walmart, European majors like Next, Duns, and Australian giants like Target and Woolworths, according to the Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA).
Interestingly, export numbers were in negative terrain for ten months in the last financial year, owing to multiple reasons like the war in Ukraine, the financial crisis in Europe and the United States, and global business not coming back to normalcy.
“We have seen over a 10 per cent rise in June also. This is mainly driven by the above-mentioned global majors diversifying their sourcing basket due to the ‘China Plus One’ policy and a major wage hike in another important market like Bangladesh,” said K M Subramanian, president of TEA. Late last year, Bangladesh reportedly announced for garment factory workers a 56 per cent increase in the monthly minimum wage to $113 from the previous $75. This has now forced global buyers to look at other traditional sourcing hubs, like Tiruppur.
According to data shared by TEA, the region’s exports in April 2024 stood at $294 million, up from $290 million in April 2023, and in May 2024 they were at $360 million versus $323 million last year. At present, Tiruppur accounts for 90 per cent of the country’s cotton knitwear exports and 55 per cent of all its knitwear exports. During the calendar year also, except for a dip of 3.8 per cent in January, all the other months saw Tiruppur exports in positive. In February, it was 6.4 per cent and March around 5.6 per cent up compared to last year.
“We are yet to see the peak. Because of the war in Europe and the possible US recession, people were conservative in placing orders. The spur in cotton prices also affected it. Now, markets are coming back to the new normal,” said R Senthil Kumar of Premier Agencies, an MSME based out of Tiruppur. According to him, stabilising of cotton prices due to a better supply-demand situation and Bangladesh wages closing in to Indian wages are also helping the rise in orders.
One of the major issues that was haunting the region was its labour shortage. However, after elections, this situation is also improving. Before elections, the city was seeing a shortage of around 40 per cent migrant employees. Now, it has come down to 10 per cent with facilities for employees getting increased, said industry sources. Tiruppur’s textile industry has 600,000 inland employees and 200,000 migrants.
The rise in orders also gives a push to the activities in the entire cluster, which include knitting units, dyeing and bleaching units, fabric printing, garmenting, embroidery, compacting, calendaring, and other ancillary units.
First Published: Jul 15 2024 | 6:25 PM IST