In the just third quarters of current financial year (till Dec 31) vis-à-vis the corresponding period of 2015-16 fiscal, exports of readymade garment from India have seen tepid growth in rupee terms and negative growth in dollar terms. This scenario (knitwear and woven combined) has left exporters in clusters like Tirupur with a daunting task in the ongoing fourth quarter to make up for the sluggishness and surpass last fiscal’s performance.

Statistics indicate exports from India stood at Rs 83,309 crores during first three quarters of the current fiscal (April 1 to December 31 in 2016), as against Rs 80,461 crores in the corresponding period last fiscal, growth of 3.54 per cent. This growth rate was much lower compared to 9.16 per cent achieved in the first three quarters of 2015-16, against the same period of 2014-15 fiscal.

In dollar terms, growth was negative till December 31 of this fiscal and stood at minus 0.15, as against 2.48 per cent during same period in 2015-16 fiscal. In Tirupur cluster, garments worth around Rs 16,600 crores were exported between April 1 and December 31 in the 2016-17 fiscal as against the annual exports of Rs 23,050 crores attained during the entire 2015-16 fiscal.

Tirupur Exporters Association president Raja Shanmugam is optimistic about surpassing last year’s performance by this fiscal end when. He says growth slowed a bit during the initial phase of this fiscal due to negative market sentiments that created purchase contraction in global markets following Brexit and also because of greater penetration in global market share by countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia. With more industry-friendly policies/ incentives, exports from the country will definitely scale higher.