Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal.
NEW DELHI: Textile exports are regaining momentum after witnessing a sharp dip due to the Covid pandemic and foreign exchange issues faced by other countries, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday. He said Bangladesh has a competitive advantage over India in textile exports as being a less developed country it enjoys duty-free access to many countries including Europe and UK.
“I have been engaged with export promotion councils regularly and the latest information is that most of the inventories are now consumed, and economies are starting to get back into shape. I think the world has kind of learnt to live with the challenges and crisis…and they report to me that once again the figures also seem to suggest that the exports are up again,” Goyal said while replying to a TNIE question on the decrease in textile exports.
He said, many countries post the Ukraine-Russia war, stopped importing non-essential items due to inflationary pressure. Also, many countries are facing foreign exchange issues post-Russia-Ukraine war due to which they cut down on imports of non-essential goods.
“For example, we sent a hundred containers to Egypt but they didn’t have the foreign exchange to pay for it, so those containers had to come back….post Covid there was a pent-up demand, people were purchasing large quantities, like gems and jewellery but soon after the Ukraine conflict, inflation went up by leaps and bounds, due to which economies got stressed and inventories started piling up.
Meanwhile, he also added that cotton and yarn export will also start reigniting from April next year. He hopes that with the free trade agreements (FTAs) India’s textile exports will get a boost and India can compete with less developed countries like Bangladesh. He added that Bangladesh will lose its competitiveness in the next couple of years.
