The 56th IIGF (India International Garment Fair), which began on New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan on January 20, offered a poor show this year, with very few buyers turning up on the fair grounds for the three-day event.
Organized by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), the official body of Indian garment exporters, the trade fair failed to evoke much enthusiasm among people in the industry. The general response among most of the participants was disappointment. Many of the exporters blamed the bad timing of the fair as the reason for the poor footfall. They stated that holding the fair twice a year serves no purpose, particularly the one in January. They vouched for the once a year (July edition) fair that was held earlier as a good platform for them to interact and transact with buyers.
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The display at the 56th edition of IIGF focused on the Autumn/Winter 2016-17, and organizers had claimed that 800-plus buyers from across the globe were expected to visit. However, these claims didn’t seem to hold ground when very few buyers turned up. Most of the exhibitors who had been taking part at this event for years were of the opinion that the fair was never as dull as it was this year.
One of the biggest reasons for this was the wrong timing of the fair. The world’s second largest and one of Asia’s largest fashion events, organized by the HKTDC, the Hong Kong Fashion Week for Fall / Winter, was held at the HKCEC from January 18 to 21. Another big show Who’s Next, which is being held from January 22 to 25, is also very similar to the IIGF. Most of the international buyers preferred these two fair rather than IIGF.
Speaking to Apparel Resources, Devang Sheth, GM (Operations), Intime Knits, Mumbai, who has been a regular fixture at this fair, said, “This fair has been little disappointing this time. The response has never been so low in terms of buyer footfall. Only a selected few buyers had attended. I believe the scope of this fair has also reduced to a certain level. Organizers should focus on a single fair in a year, rather than such fairs. At least, the exporters will save some time, and money.”
Besides, participants felt that despite the wrong timing and slow market, still there should have been a reasonable number buyers in attendance, as buyers too have to run their shops and source their wares from India.
In any case, the few garment exporters, who did take part in the fair this time, said they were satisfied with the enquiries. Apparel Resources also managed to meet a few buyers, who said that the fair had far less participants this time as compared to their expectations.
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