candy (1 candy = 356 kg) in October to

Rs. 28,300 a candy in July, up 41.5 per

cent cent.
The Commis s ion tor Agricuiture Cos ts
arid Prices (CACP) recommends MSP
for two bas ic varieties of raw cotton of
fair-average quaiity.
Whiie on is the medium iong s tapie
iength group of 25 mm-27 mm of the
variety F414/H-777/J-34, the other is the
iong stapie group of 27.5 mm-32 which
is of the variety H-4.
While deciding the IVISP, the cos t of
production and a reasonable margin of
profits for cotton growers are taken into
account.
The country produced 31. 5 million
bales (1 bale = 170 kg) in 2007-08
agains t 28 million bales in 2006-07.
However, due to a fall in acreage in the
US and higher global demand, cotton
exceeded the target of 8.5 million bales
and went ahead 10 million bales .
This had its impact on the cotton prices
which shot up to historical highs in the
current cotton year.
China's loss c a be I ndi a' s gain
in textile market
A fall in the export of textile and ap-
parel from china to the United States
during January-June, even as the value
of India's s hipments remained un-
changed, is sparking hopes of a shift in
US orders from the world's most popu-
lous nation to this country. India, Viet-
nam, Cambodia and Banglades h are
among the few countries whos e ex-
ports of textile and apparel to the US
rose during the first six months of 2008
while the world's bigges t economy goes
through a downturn.
However, China, Pakis tan, Sri Lanka
and Turkey have s een a s lowdown in
offtake from their US s uppliers amid a
drop in the value of the country's textile
and apparel imports . One can s ee
some shift in orders from China to other
countries , notably Banglades h and In-
dia. We can pos s ibly look at an addi-
tional $1 billion of exports happening
out of India, the US importers are ag-
gressively looking at alternate s ourcing
locations and India is high on the buy-
ers ' list.
Official US statistics show that the coun-
try imported textiles and apparel worth
$24.37 billion during Jan-June 2008, a
5. 1% drop compared to $25.7 billion in
the corres pondi ng year-ago peri od.
From 2004 to 2007, the country's im-
ports rose from $46.93 billion to $53.12
billion. India's exports to the US in the
firs t s ix months this year remained
barely changed at $1. 42 billion from
$1. 41 billion while Vietnam's grew to
$824 million from $668 million.
Banglades h's s hipments went up to
$832 million from $811 million. The
value of Chinese textile exports , on the
other hand, fell from $9.7 billion to $9.5
billion, while Pakis tan was down to
$1. 42 billion ($1. 68 billion) and Sri
Lanka $201 million ($245 million). Tur-
key clocked exports of $264 million
from $313 million in the first six months
of 2007.
Global buyers are looking at the cheap-
es t-cos t producer. Indian exporters
need to look at moving up the value
chain and ens uring better realizations
at a time when currency movement
would be highly unpredictable.
Doom for handloom
Des pite concerted efforts by the Gov-
ernment of India to protect region-s pe-
cific products through Geographical
Indication (GIs) Act, handloom fabrics
are on the verge of collaps e with loom-
ing threat of fakes , increas ing unem-
ployment and a lack of will on the part
of textile authorities to correct the flaws
in the system.
One only has to talk to thos e involved
with the world-famous 'Banaras i' sarees
to get a true picture. Banaras i s aree
and brocade, one of the product cat-
egories that fall under the Geographical
Indication (Gis ) Act, today faces the
bigges t threat from pass-offs produced
by powerlooms of Surat.
An original Benares saree, which takes
5-7 days and is s ix meters long, is
priced at Rs. 1,500. But pass-offs from
Surat's powerlooms , which produces
three sarees in one day, is today avail-
able between Rs. 250-450.
The pass-offs not only eat into the live-
lihood of s rores of s killed Banaras i
weavers , they als o des troy the well-
earned recognition of the fabric, over
six lakh skilled workers who run this Rs.
4,000-crore bus ines s today aren't get-
ting the due wages .
HWA is a regis tered s ociety bas ed in
Varanasi (which the Britis hers referred
to as Benaras ) this is clos ely working
with the weavers of Banarasi s arees .
Kannur home furni s hi ng is another
handloom category that has been suf-
fering, but due to a lack of interest from
the younger generation. In fact, it has
seen a 50 per cent decline in volumes
in the last few years .
Despite exporting towels , table clothes ,
pillow covers , cus hion covers and bed
s preads to the value of Rs. 300 crore
annually, the volume is fas t eroding
due to a declining population O;^weav-
ers.
3
Over 50 per cent of the labour engaged
in this home furnishing business is over
50 years of age, the young don't want
to follow their family tradition, Kannur
home furni s hi ng indus try has s een
employment figures dwindling down
from 1 lakh weavers 15 years back to
just 13,000 weavers now.
The other threat the handloom industry
is facing is a lack of will in executing
the Handloom Mark Scheme ins tituted
by the government of India in June
2006 to promote handloom products on
the domes tic as well as international
s cene.
The s cheme calls for handloom weav-
ers and traders to apply a 'handloom
tag' on the handwoven products .
The problem with the s cheme is that
there is very little funds going into the
promotion of the tags among the weav-
ers.
Ma n -m a d e Textiles i n I n d i a Se pt e m b e r 2008
Also, with each tag coming for 60 paise,
it comes with a high cost for poor
weavers - a real indicator of the poor
margins these weavers earn now.
Two years after implementation of the
scheme, only four entrepreneurs in the
whole of Kannur have applied for the
scheme.
Centre to develop t e x t i l e hub in
Coimbatore
The textiles ministry has identified
South India Textile Research Associa-
tion (SITRA) based in Coimbatore for
development into a centre of excel-
lence for production of medical textiles
products (Meditech). The government
would grant Rs. 10 crore to set up the
necessary facilities, including interna-
tionally accredited testing lab, training
facilities, IT enabled information center
and video-conferencing facility.
This maiden effort is part of the
ministry's strategy to provide one-stop
infrastructure support for the promotion
of technical textiles, which have an
estimated market potential of Rs.
30,000 crore by the end of 2008-09.
Coimbatore has been selected as it has
a large number of hospitals and several
textile units through-out Tamil Nadu are
already active players in medical tex-
tiles.
The upcoming center is likely to oper-
ate successfully helping entrepreneurs
to produce items with existing machin-
ery and with minimum investment. The
SITRA centre would be followed by
three more - The Northern India Textile
Research Association (NITRA) for pro-
motion of protective textiles, the
Mumbai Textile Research Association
for geo-Textiles, and Synthetic and Art
Silk Mills Research Association
(SASMIRA) and Man-made Textile Asso-
ciation for agro-textiles.
To promote medical textiles, the SITRA
centre would go a step further to invite
internatinal experts to create awareness
among local entrepreneurs about vari-
ous products by means of seminars
and workshops for the local industry. At
the same time, to expand the limited
database of technical textiles, the gov-
ernment has engaged ICRA Manage-
ment Consultancy Services (ImaCS) to
conduct a baseline survey of the seg-
ment. The report of the ImaCS would
be available next month.
According to textile minister
Shankersingh Vaghela, the government
has chalked out an action plan to pro-
mote technical textiles which is an
emerging area for investment in the
country and has provided opportunity to
conventional textile manufacturers to
diversify into niche knowledge-based
activity. Being less competitive and
more profitable than conventional tex-
tiles, the $107 billion global technical
textile industry is expected to grow to
$127 billion by 2010.
Vaghela expressed concern about India
having a meager 4% share in this mar-
ket, though it is the second largest tex-
tile economy after China which ac-
counts for 20% of the total textile activ-
ity. To facilitate investments in the area,
the government has included major
machinery required for technical tex-
tiles in the list of items with
concessional custom duties in the
modified Technology Upgradation Fund
Scheme (TUFS) this year.
Olympics spells doom for t e x t i l e
units in Bhiwandi
The Beijing Olympic Games has not
spelled good news for more than 60
textile processing units in Bhiwandi with
shortage of dyes and chemicals,
largely imported from China, fuelling a
spike in their input costs. The industry
that depends on Chinese dyes and
chemicals has been put into a spot
after the Olympic host shut down its
local chemical-manufacturing units be-
cause of pollution concerns.
In just over three months, prices of
dyes and chemicals imported from
China has jumped by more than 200%-
300%, hurting the only source of liveli-
hood for more than 200,000 workers
and weavers of this vital textile city of
western India.
If the escalating prices of dyes were not
enough, the rising crude oil prices and
doublt-digit inflation has made matters
worse. Dyes, chemicals, electricity,
water and coals are the major inputs
for the textile makers of Bhiwandi.
The abnormal rise in prices of dyes and
chemicals is due to phenomenal rise in
crude oil prices, Bhiwandi is one of the
largest textiles fabric producing centers
giving employment to nearly two lakh
weavers and workers. Traders said
hoarding of key input by a section of
traders is also hurting their margins.
The industry has requested the govern-
ment to consider the industry's demand
for allotment of "A" grade coal at a
subsidized rate.
According to industry sources coal
prices will cross Rs. 7,000 per tonne by
December and if this trend will con-
tinue, it will definitely ring the death
knell for the labour intensive and ex-
port-oriented industry.
Textile industry in the red as de-
mand f a l l s
Rising raw material prices, lack of
enough government support and de-
clining demand in the United States
have taken a toll on the Indian textile
industry
Thirty-three major textile companies
have reported a cumulative loss of RS.
152.21 crore in the first quarter (April-
June) of the current financial year, com-
pared with a profit of Rs. 144.56 crore
in the corresponding period of the pre-
vious financial year.
Major textile companies like Raymond
and RSWM Ltd. have reported losses,
whereas Vardhaman Textiles, Alok In-
dustries, KPR Mill and Sutlej Textiles
have witnessed a massive decline in
their profits.
The industry's performance was on the
decline even last year on account of
the dollar falling nearly 12 per cent
against the rupee. The prices of differ-
ent varieties of raw cotton rose nearly
40 per cent in 2008, with Shankar-6,
the benchmark, selling at Rs. 28,500
September 2008 Man-made Textiles in India