India textile exports touch record levels in FY22

For a long time, India was the undisputed leader in textiles exports. Then things changed as countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand started manufacturing textiles at much lower rates compared to India.

Gradually, India started losing its textiles mojo. It is in this light that the Product Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme was made specifically available to the Indian textiles sector. The idea was to boost output and exports. And, boost it did!

As per the data coming from the Commerce Ministry, India recorded its highest-ever textiles and apparel exports in the fiscal year FY22 at $44.4 billion. It may be recollected that India had scaled record merchandise exports of $418 billion in FY22 and textiles and apparel now account for nearly 12% of the total exports. This record was achieved with a very specific and granular focus on boosting the export of textiles and ready-made apparel.

There is no disputing the fact that growth in exports has been one of the key drivers of GDP growth in India in the last 2 years. Even at the height of COVID, exports and imports continued to flourish.
 

If you look at textiles exports for FY22, then it was 41% higher compared to FY21 and a good 26% higher compared to FY20. So, the growth in textile exports is not just on a low base, but genuine and incremental growth in exports.

In terms of destinations for India’s textile exports, the US was the top export destination for textiles and apparel shipments and comprised nearly 27% of all textile exports. Close behind was the European Union at 18% share, Bangladesh at 12% share and the United Arab Emirates at 6% share.

Clearly, a lot of bulk demand from the US and EU is back into India and that is reason enough for the Indian textile industry to celebrate its success.

Let us now look at the specific product categories under the textile exports header. Cotton textiles exports at $17.2 billion accounted for nearly 39% of the market and it also registered the fastest growth in FY22 over the last two years.

Apart from cotton textiles, the export of ready garments was also robust at $16 billion with 36% market share. The above 2 categories of textile products accounted for a bulk of the exports. Man-made textiles and handicrafts were a much smaller component of textile exports from India.