India’s apparel exports soar 17.6 percent

Apparel exports from India have increased 17.6 percent in April- September 2014, says the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). Highlighting the export performance of the country, Virender Uppal, Chairman AEPC said garment exports are onsustained growth path.

“The cumulative exports during the April-September period of the FY 2014-15 increased by 17.6 percent over the same period of previous year to reach 8.3 billion dollars (Rs 50, 885 crores), which is good performance. Issues like increasing labour cost in China, non-compliance of large number of factories in Bangladesh, high rate of inflation, currency appreciation in the competing countries provided India, a big opportunity to boost its export performance,” he added.

AEPC feels that with adequate support from the government, ample skilled labour can help the ‘Make in India’ initiative announced by the Prime Minister, a reality. AEPC has been pushing for industry enabling policy. “We are working on issues like all industry rates of drawback, interest subvention, procedural simplifications to cut the transaction cost and time, simplifications of labour laws, among others,” informed Uppal.

To promote exports, the council has been organizing the India Market Days. The 22nd edition was inaugurated on October 27, 2014, at Apparel House, Gurgaon by Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman EP, along with, EC member and Puneet Kumar, Secretary General, AEPC, in the presence of international buyers, participants and AEPC officials. 52 exhibitors are displaying their Spring/Summer 2015 collection.