India Ranks among the World’s Leading Apparel Exporters
“Sourcing Apparel from India” is a recent addition of Research and Markets Reports according to a recent announcement. India ranks very high among the world’s leading apparel exporters. It has an abundant domestic cotton supply, and cotton items account for about three-quarters of its apparel exports. In fact, 13 of the 14 major clothing types exported from India to the EU comprise of cotton products.
The basic infrastructure of the industry is rather flexible in terms of taking up small customized orders and ability to make quick changes if required. This is primarily due t the existence of an array of small scale enterprises within the industry. The genesis of trend can be traced down to past government policies which aimed at generating mass employment and leading to economic growth per se. Hence the Indian government reserved the production of products like woven and knitted apparel for exclusive production by small-scale units. However, the policy witnessed a gradual termination and, encouraged by the elimination of the global quota system at the end of 2004, the number of biggies in the industry is growing at a substantial pace.
The export of Indian apparel is largely contributed by countries like EU and the US. The UAE has an 8% share but it is thought that most UAE imports are re-exported. In 2005 India was the third largest apparel exporter to the USA and the fifth largest supplier to the EU.