No festivities for them: Plunged demand leaves woollen exporters on the edge

Trade has plummeted drastically because of fears of second wave of pandemic

An employee works at a power loom in Amritsar. Tribune file

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 9

While businesses continue their road to recovery, the outset of second wave of pandemic overseas, now fraught with terror risk as well, has grabbed the export market of woollen items by the nape here as the demand plunged drastically.

Gautam Jain, an exporter, said: “Export of products like shawls, stoles, muffler and scarf plummeted drastically. As an impact, manufacturing was also brought down.” He added that the second lockdown prompted the European buyers to stop the payment of already procured material which was a back-to-back blow to the exporters here.

The biggest blow came from the markets of Germany, France and the UK. Europe-based multi-national companies with scores of stores across the continent also stopped buying woollen items. Similarly, importers from Nepal and Bangladesh also did not place orders as the flow of tourists remained nil due to border closures. Meanwhile, rice exporters are crying over non-operation of freight trains causing glitches in export. Piara Lal Seth, president of Shawl Club of India (SCI), said the country export about Rs1000 crore of shawls, muffler, scarf and stoles. Of these, the share of the city stands at Rs450 crore.

The border district is exporting over Rs2200 crore merchandise, including basmati rice, shawls, chess, pharmaceuticals and textiles. Among the goods being procured, basmati rice has the lion’s share. Sources in the Foreign Trade office shared on anonymity that basmati rice worth Rs1500 crore is exported every year. Arab countries are the major consumers of the local basmati, well-known for its pleasant-to-senses aroma.

Chess and plant extracts for medicine are marketed abroad, especially to the developed and European countries. The trade has managed to survive somehow. Surjit Singh Ahuja, a chess exporter, said, “There was no impact on sale of chess to Europe as it falls under the amusement category. Since people remained at home during the lockdown, they are more inclined towards things like chess. However, the air freight rates have doubled after the lifting of the lockdown.”