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Decreasing demand from US and Europe has caused the garment exports to come down by 13.5 percent to $833 million, in June. This is the second consecutive month when garment exports have declined.
As per Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) statistics, garment exports for the corresponding period last year, stood at $964 million.
Owing to sluggish recuperation of the western markets like US and Europe, demands from their countries have not recovered yet. Around 80 percent of the total apparel exports are towards US and EU.
Apparel exports for 2008-09 fiscal marked a fall of 2.6 percent. However, it did depict a rise of 14 percent in the first month of this financial year. It was since August 2008 that, exports started declining with retail orders being impacted by the global downfall.
Apparel exporters now, with an intent to lessen their dependency on conventional US and European markets, are looking at newer markets like Japan, West Asia, Africa and Australia.
The Textiles Ministry for current financial year has fixed the export target for apparels at $12 billion. The apparel industry is a source of livelihood for over 7 million people, half of whom are employed in the export sector.
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