Slowdown in Indian handicraft exports during the current fiscal owing to dip in demand from the Western markets, particularly from the EU and the US, according to a fibre2fashion report.
As per the data unveiled by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), handicraft exports from the country increased by US$ 36.41 million from April-June 2011’s US$ 555.22 million to US$ 591.36 million during April-June this year, which is a meagre rise of 6.51 percent. However, when calculated in terms of the Indian currency, exports grew strongly during first quarter of the current fiscal from April-June 2011’s Rs. 24.93 billion to Rs. 31.86 billion, showing a year-on-year rise of 27.78 percent.
According to experts, deceleration in Indian Rupee has helped the sector’s exports. Although, there is a dip in demand in key western markets like the EU and the US, EPCH is eyeing good potential emerging markets like Africa, Middle East and Latin America and it expects the sector’s export growth rate to rise on its own in the coming months.
EPCH said that despite financial slump in West Europe, it is making all efforts to achieve the current fiscal’s handicraft export target of US$ 3.3 billion. As per the EPCH data, shawls as artwares were one of the highly sought after items in the export market and its exports grew by 28.92 percent in dollar terms during the first quarter.
