The 36th India Knit Fair for Spring/Summer Collection 2014 held recently in Tirupur was a small fair where 35 garment export companies showcased their collections. With few international buyers visiting the show, exhibitors were disappointed, although there were many agents/representatives of various buying house from Tirupur, Delhi-NCR and Bangalore but these were not the priority of the exhibitors. On display were value added knit garments for men, ladies and kids made with 100 per cent man-made fibres; linen and polar fleece were an added attraction. Neppy mélange, space dyed, poly cotton blended with step dyed jacquard, double mercerized and 100 per cent modal auto stripped fabrics, were commonly used. Fluorescent colour based yarn dyed, garments made of florescent colours and florescent cold pigment prints were also among the popular trends seen.
[bleft]The delegation of Japanese buyers said that India has a chance to increase the export of textiles to Japan from 0.9 per cent to 3 per cent in the next 2-3 years.The delegation asserted that at present Japan imports textiles worth about US $ 25 billion per year, and that China accounts more than 85 per cent of the imports.[/bleft]
As the fair was for Spring/Summer 2014, exporters were hopeful of buyers and had prepared their collection with extra efforts using various value additions and different kinds of fabrics. KPR Mills Limited, Tirupur having huge capacities in women and children’s wear displayed value added garments with the use of sequin, studs, stars and different kinds of embroidery. “We were hoping that buyers will like our collection as we have some interesting work on it, but there were very few buyers and most of them were regular buyers so it was not as we were expecting,” said Prasad DKK, Marketing Head of the company. Holding similar views Parthasarathi, Merchandiser Manager, RBR Garments, Tirupur informed, “We displayed polo Tees made of 100 per cent polyester (imported performance fabric) which are being used by golfers, but we got only one buyer from Canada. These kinds of products are not the priority of local buyers and even we prefer direct export of these products, but in the fair there were only local buying houses.” PGC Textile Corporation, one of the biggest companies of Tirupur had displayed a collection made of light weight fabric in 100 per cent cotton, but they too did not get any serious enquiries. “Many of the visitors were looking for stock lots and the feel was of a local fair,” said TM Balasubramanyam, VP, Global Marketing, PGC.
[bleft]“40 buyers from different countries like Japan, UAE, USA, Netherland, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, France, Singapore, Canada, South Africa, Australia and Hong Kong, and 110 buying houses/agents visited the fair. A delegation of Japanese buyers who visited the fair are keen on increasing their sourcing of garments from us. India can increase its export share into the Japanese textiles market under present atmosphere and it will continue to grow if the quality of products improve further.” – A. Sakthivel, Chairman, IKFA[/bleft]
However, not all exhibitors were disappointed and some wanting to connect with buying agencies found good contacts. Deekay Knitwears, Tirupur exhibited after a long gap and was successful in tapping 2 buying agents, with whom order finalization can take place very soon. “For us even 2 buying agent are satisfactory and as they liked our neon colour dyeing and printing, we are hopeful about orders,” said N. Duraisamy, Managing Partner of the company. The company displayed men and kidswear made of a blend of viscose and polyester. Balaji, Export Manager of Poppys Knitwear, Tirupur was enthusiastic as he claimed to have received enquiries. “Though they were small buyers, but looking for something different in their price range. They liked our lycra mix products and we are in touch with them for further developments,” he informed.
Apart from garment exporters of Tirupur there were also a few exporters from Mumbai and other cities but the attraction was two companies displaying their fabric and yarn. Bharat Enterprises, Salem having the fabric capacity of more than 4 lakh metres was focusing on woven yarn dyed fabric and mix and match in garmenting. The company was quite happy with the fair. “Being a single player in the woven segments we got very good response, as 2 orders of fabric and same for garments are almost final. We are comfortable with foreign buyers and as well as local buying houses, so we are satisfied,” said Vishal Jain, MD, Bharat Enterprises.
The other company drawing attraction was Jayashree Textiles (Aditya Birla Nuvo) displaying their linen yarn for knitted fabric. As it is the only player in India manufacturing the same, the focus was to create awareness among the Tirupur exporters. “Our product is almost three times more costly than cotton yarn, but it has a worldwide demand. Companies like Bhuvaneswari Textiles, Anusham and few other are using our yarn in Tirupur while in North India there are many companies which are making niche products by using linen yarn. We are convincing the Tirupur Industry that they can earn higher margins by using linen yarn,” said Debabrata Seth, Assistant Manager, Jayashree Textiles.
