US buyers flock to apparels fair `Tex Trends India-2014’

The United States has registered the maximum number of buyers participating in `Tex Trends India 2014', featuring over 380 exhibitors and displaying diverse range of products from the entire length and breadth of the country, even as a total of 3,264 global buyers and 442 buying agents have registered for the fair so far.

Union minister of textiles K S Rao today inaugurated the 4th edition of the textiles fair `Tex-Trends India–2014', one of Asia's largest textile shows spread over a vast area of around 7,000 square meters at the Pragati Maidan (ITPO).

The latest edition of `Tex-Trends India' will show-case the emerging trends in a range of products, including apparel, fashion jewellery  and accessories, home furnishing, yarns, threads and fabrics, silk, synthetic, rayon and cotton textiles and jute garments, etc.

All the 11 councils, including the National Jute Board, under the ministry of textiles, participated in the Tex Trends. The show will also have theme area made by TEXPROCIL, NJB, AEPC, NITRA, ITRA, BTRA, SASMIRA,MANTRA, Textiles Committee and EPCH to showcase uniqueness and strengths of India's textiles industry. There will also be fashion shows every day where latest designs and collections will be showcased.

Tex Trends India 2014 will showcase futuristic fashions reflected in fine apparel and accessories for women, men and children with an exhaustive range of casual-wear, formal-wear, party-wear and sports-wear. The exhibition will display designs made from different kinds of fabric such as cotton, silk, linen, wool, denim, synthetic fibres and their blends. Nearly 400 reputed export houses of India will be a part of this grand exhibition.

In his inaugural address, textiles minister K S Rao stated that garment exports from the country have sustained growth of 15 per cent over the last nine months (April-December 2013). Trade data for December 2013 show apparel exports have increased by 17.4 per cent year-on-year to $1.24 billion.

Cumulative export for April-December 2013-14 has increased by 16.3 per cent over the same period of previous financial year and reached $10.56 billion.

''I am very happy that the 4th Tex Trends India is expected to do brisk business. I would urge AEPC to target more buyers from the countries where markets have not been tapped so far. I would also appeal to all exhibitors to innovate and bring more new styles in garments so that the interests of our buyers remain with us,'' the minister stated.

EU is the top most RMG export destination of India with $2.8 billion, followed by the US where exports from India were to the tune of $1.64 billion. West Asia is the third largest regional apparel export destination of India with $1.27 billion while exports to Africa was to the tune of $311.3 million.

The textile minister, however, raised concerns over the macroeconomic risks facing the Indian economy, which have increased during the last six months, mainly on the dimensions of sliding domestic growth, rising input cost and slowdown in manufacturing and employment generation.

Virender Uppal, chairman of AEPC, demanded that the government provide more concessions by raising the limit of 5 to 10 per cent and from 10 to 20 per cent for small and medium industries, respectively.

The apparel sector alone engages around 11.2 million workers and contributes almost 50 per cent of the entire textiles exports from the country. The textile industry has the latent potential to absorb more people and therefore this sector needs increased focusing.