India's apparel exports may get boost as coronavirus impacts China's market

India may register an increase in its apparel export as China's market has been hit due to the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV), said A Sakthivel, the chairman of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC).

Since December, more than 2,000 people, mainly in China, have lost their lives to Coronavirus that causes a respiratory disease called Covid-19.

"Maybe there will be a 20 per cent immediate increase in the exports and later it may slowly increase up to 50-60 per cent," A Sakthivel told ANI.

The European Union, the USA, Middle East are India's major markets and the apparel sector contributes to 4.9% of India's total exports, as per the data provided by AEPC.

AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India that provides invaluable assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers/international buyers who choose India as their preferred sourcing destination for garments.

"It is unfortunate (coronavirus outbreak) but there is some opportunity for India to get some orders. Our export is the US $16.2 billion, suppose the US $10 billion are diverted to India, it will not be able to take the order immediately as we do not have the required infrastructure currently," he further added.

He also asked the Indian exporters to go for alternatives and said," We were mostly doing cotton garments, we reached a saturation point. Now we advise the exporters that they should immediately go for manmade fibers."

"The export was stagnant in the last four years because other countries have come into the picture like Vietnam, Cambodia besides Bangladesh. In the last three years, our export was average while Vietnam which was doing less than us for years has beaten us now, " he said while highlighting as to how countries who were behind India in textile exports have managed to beat us.