NEW DELHI: India is looking to expand its paltry 1.24% share of the Japanese textile market by getting its government to pitch in and help Indian exporters by improving the testing standards and better understanding the requirements of their customers.
Kick-starting the initiative, the Centre held a workshop in association with Japanese quality regulator QTEC. The idea, said Subrata Gupta, joint secretary in the textiles ministry, was to change the "mindset" and "enhance" the quantum of textiles exports to Japan. Japan is a major textile importing country with almost 97% of their textile requirement being sourced through imports mainly from China (62.11%), Vietnam (10.56%), Indonesia (4.12%) and Bangladesh (2.76%).
India accounts for just 1.24%.
The association with QTEC is important in view of the fact that India's exports have been going down compared to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. For instance, it could only notch up $40 billion in revenues from textile exports as against a target of $47.5 billion set in 2015-16.
The association with QTEC is expected to not only expose Indian exporters to quality expectations from Japanese buyers but also help the textile ministry give a push to overall exports. "This is the first of many other measures we plan to increase exports to Japan, which is one of the major textile importing countries. It's a market which has tremendous potential for India," said Ajit B Chavan, secretary, textiles committee.
Asked whether the Chinese presence was likely to be an obstacle, Chavan said that once the Indian exporters understood the requirements of the Japanese market, "wresting" a part of the market from competitors would not be difficult.
Source: Timesofindia.indiatimes.com
