India Garments exports jump 11% to $3.5 billion

India's garments exports have climbed over 11% to $3.5 billion as local exporters cornered a bigger share of the market in Latin America and most of Asia to offset the impact of poor demand in the US and Europe.

The rise comes after garment exports fell nearly 6% to $12.9 billion in 2012-13. Buoyed by the success, the government and the Apparel Export Promotion Council are now egging exporters to target nontraditional markets such Uruguay, Columbia, Israel, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, and Japan, A Sakthivel head of the industry body said on Monday.

Although data is currently unavailable, Indian garment exporters witnessed a reversal in fortunes in April, at least in the US with the value of shipments surging over 16% to $337 million. For January-April, they continued to remain in the red with exports falling 0.8% to $1.2 billion. The story was much the same in the European Union, where exports rose almost 16% in April to $525 million, while January-April shipments are estimated to have decreased 2.6% to $2.1 billion.

According to the latest available data, among the top eight exporters to the US, India and Mexico are the only two countries that have seen the value of shipments decline, while others such as China and Bangladesh have continued to witness an increase.

With the tide turning a little, textiles minister K Sambasiva Rao on Monday asked apparel exporters to step up their overseas sales target to $20 billion in 2013-14. "You assure me that you are going to increase the exports — not from $14 billion to $17.5 billion this year, but to $20 billion," he said.