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The recent Union Budget announcement of a rise in customs duty on import of raw silk from five per cent to 15 per cent has brought cheer to silk farmers in the southern states. Ishita Roy, member-secretary, Central Silk Board, talks to Mahesh Kulkarni on the impact. Edited excerpts:
How will the rise in customs duty on import of raw silk benefit the producers and domestic industry?
It will have a tremendous impact on growers. It will directly benefit farmers and reelers, as this will stabilise the price of cocoons and raw silk in the domestic market. You will see a significant climb in the prices very shortly. Prices will not only stabilise but also improve. In fact, prices have already started going up.
Second, our imports will get reduced and, thereby, it will be an encouragement and inspiration for local rearers to go for import substitutes and buy bivoltine silk. It will also boost production-gradable silk in the domestic market, as the increase in duty will bring down the dependence on imported raw silk. The rise in import duty will also encourage farmers to take up sericulture on a larger scale and contribute towards quality raw silk production and attaining self-sustenance. In total, we are aiming to eliminate imports by 2022.
How much raw silk are Indian reelers presently importing?
About 5,700 tonnes, particularly bivoltine mulberry silk of international quality, mainly from China. Our aim is to completely stop dependence on imports and we are working to increase our exports.
What is the present demand for silk in the country and how much of that is produced domestically?
India is the largest consumer of raw silk in the world. Consumption was 28,733 tonnes in 2011-12, while our production was 23,060 tonnes. Of this, mulberry silk output aggregated 18,272 tonnes (79.2 per cent). The remaining 4,788 tonnes (20.8 per cent) was Vanya silk. The balance of the requirement was met through imports.
What is the current production of bivoltine silk in India?
Not very high; about 1,685 tonnes annually. However, over the next four years, it will go up to 5,000 tonnes, an all-time high, by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan.
What is the Central Silk Board doing to bridge the gap between demand and supply?
We have set a target of producing 32,000 tonnes of raw silk, an increase of 39 per cent over the current production during the 12th Five Year Plan. The government has planned to encourage silk farmers through various programmes - Cluster Promotion Programme, Catalytic Development Programme, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and others. To increase bivoltine silk output, we are organising 150 clusters.
What are the thrust areas in the 12th Plan and how much money will be spent to promote Indian silk?
We are giving emphasis on bivoltine silkworm seed production. Strengthening of the facilities of farmers such as rearing houses, irrigation facilities and modern rearing equipment, among others, will be done. We require financial support of about Rs 6,500 crore during the 12th Plan, as against Rs 4,000 crore in the 11th Plan.
We are also planning to promote Indian silk abroad through the Silk Mark as a common brand for Indian silk. We are planning to embed the Silk Mark fusion label using nano markers, as intrinsic to silk as much as hallmark to gold. This will help eliminate duplicate products.
