Export prospects of Khadi is rest assured: Suresh Prabhu

The Dollar Business Bureau

Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said on Tuesday that he believes there are good prospects of exports of Khadi from the country as the world shifting towards natural and eco-friendly products, thus creating a demand for eco-friendly products.

“The export prospects of Khadi is rest assured with world moving towards natural and eco-friendly products,” Prabhu said at a round table discussion, organised by Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) with support from Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and UDAAN SKILL.

“More and more people are becoming conscious of responsibility towards the environment and ecology and greater demand is being generated for bio-degradable and eco-friendly products,” he added.

The Minister further said that it is for this reason the new MEIS 2015-20 policy also emphasises on export incentives on eco-friendly textiles giving it a 34% growth last year, from Rs.52,000 crore to Rs.70,000 crore turnover.

Prabhu said that the share of Khadi in overall textile export is very low and the focus on this segment is become vital.

“Khadi exports is pertinent considering the fact that while textile sector being the largest source of employment generation in the country contributing to country’s 15% exports; share of Khadi sector is very low (less than 0.22%) in total textile sector,” he said.

“Hence focus on exports of this sector becomes important. End to end marketing strategy with support from trading houses and academic institutes like IIFT is the need of the hour,” he added.

Speaking at the roundtable, IIFT Director Professor Manoj Pant said that apart from the supply side constraints for raw material procurement and production, there is a strong need for establishing a robust demand in international markets. This will require innovation in terms of diversification in product and market.

“Lack of product diversification is quite visible through limited export basket of Khadi which currently includes silk and muslin, readymade garments, textile-based Khadi and charkha,” he added.

“IIFT with a strong research capability can contribute towards establishing a market intelligence and give inputs on appropriate policy instruments and contribute towards cluster development,” said Pant.

KVIC Chairman VK Saxena explained about the diversity of efforts made by KVIC towards promotion of Khadi.

“Its export worthiness also comes from the fact that Indian Khadi earns a lot of water and carbon footprint since it requires only 3 litre of water as compared to 56 litre in other fabrics,” he said.