Courtesy Livemint.com

NEW DELHI : With Sri Lanka buffeted by economic headwinds, Indian apparel exporters are beginning to receive orders from the UK, EU, and even Latin American countries where Indian textiles had little or no presence.

Textiles and garments contributed nearly half of Sri Lanka’s exports but fuel shortages amid its worst financial crisis and ensuing power cuts are disrupting the production of key exports such as apparel and tea.

Much of the tea orders have already started moving to India and now a similar trend is being witnessed in the textiles sector, experts said, especially as India and Sri Lanka produce similar kinds of apparel and garments.

However, Sri Lanka’s apparel and garments exports get duty free access to various countries, unlike Indian exports.

There could be some benefits in the long run. Their exports are duty-free and that makes a difference. Besides they are trying to keep their textile sector protected despite the crisis,” A. Sakthivel, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations (FIEO) told Mint.

Sakthivel added that discussions are ongoing and that exporters have begun receiving queries from several European countries.

Apparel Export promotion council (AEPC) chairman Narendra Goenka concurred that India can emerge as an alternative to Sri Lankan apparel as it can produce the majority of the same products at lower cost.

The shift in demand from Sri Lanka to India may not be large but exporters have started receiving orders even from markets where we had little presence such as Latin America. Demand is also higher from UAE and Australia, too. What could work in our favour is pricing. Sri Lanka’s cost of production of apparel was much higher compared with India’s and this is why customers are looking at us,” Goenka added.