Woollen Product Exports Dip

The steep fall in exports of woollen products reveals that the global demand would be sluggish during this wool season, Suranjana Ray, executive director of Wool and Woollen Export Promotion Council (WWEPC) said.

While woollen goods worth $114.47 million were exported during April-August 1995, the export value for the same period this year was just $101.02 million. Export of woollen knitwears fell from $20.06 million to $14.59 million, registering a negative growth of 27.3 per cent.

Similarly, shawls, scarves, mufflers and rumals slid down by about 35 per cent, from $21.54 million to $14.02 million.

Ray attributed the poor export performance to fall in demand in the international market.

 

The global demand is obviously not as much as it used to be before, at least in the case of woollen products. The dull markets may take quite a while to revive, and this season could be a tough one, she said.

In fact, exporters considered the lack of demand to be a bigger problem than the availability of export finance and the interest rates. While woollen goods' exporters have been raising the issue of export finance, they are not overly bothered about as finding the right market and adapting the product to the buyers' need poses a greater challenge than getting export finance, she said.

Maintaining that the fall in exports had been caused by international market trends rather than domestic factors, Ray said woollen products like worsteds fabrics woollen blankets and yarn have been performing well, as they continued to enjoy good international demand.

However, the export growth in these few products were not sufficient to offset the fall in other products and the overall growth has been negative, she said.

Exports of worsted fabrics were higher by 25 per cent over last year during the first five months of the current fiscal. The export value grew from $13.67 million to $17.11 million. Similarly, export of woollen blankets rose by 64.17 per cent, from $3.84 million to $6.31 million. Yarn exports rose by 28.5 per cent from $10.88 million to $13.98 million.