India aims to lift textile and apparel exports to $100 billion in the next five years, from about $40 billion now, by targeting smaller, high-income markets, launching a ₹5,000 crore cotton productivity mission, adopting high-density planting and promoting new-age fibres such as milkweed, ramie and flax, said textiles minister Giriraj Singh.
The government is also pushing domestic manufacturing of textile machinery now imported from China, Germany and Japan, while sector employment is expected to increase to 80 million by 2031 from 45 million at present, he told ET.
“We are focusing on smaller countries with high per capita income and also working on the warehouse hub and spoke model for small garmenters to increase exports,” Singh said.
He added that India’s 15 free trade agreement (FTA) partners offer a textile market of $198 billion, while the country’s exports to these markets amount to only $11.5 billion at present. India’s textile market currently stands at $180 billion and is projected to reach $350 billion in next five years.
“To meet rising demand, the target is to produce 25 mt of fibre in future,” the minister said, emphasising that the government aims to increase the exports of technical textiles to $10 billion by 2030 from around $4 billion, led by the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. The PLI scheme for manmade fibre (MMF) apparel, MMF fabrics and products of technical textiles has helped attract estimated investment of ₹31,270 crore from 91 beneficiary companies. As of September-end, exports of ₹733 crore and turnover of ₹7,290 crore have been achieved.
The plan of action is crucial as India, with about 5% share in world trade, is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of textiles.
India is working on dedicated outreach programmes in 40 countries, including the UK, UAE, Russia, Japan and South Korea, to push textiles exports amid the US’ 50% tariffs. “These markets were selected before the tariffs came into effect (in August) and exports have risen in 39 of these selected countries in last few months,” he said.
Together, these 40 countries represent more than $590 billion in textile and apparel imports, offering vast opportunities for India to enhance its market share.
The challenge, Singh said, is to meet the domestic demand. “The first target is fulfilling the demand of the domestic market and then exports. The production of defective clothes has reduced 80% using AI-based inspection which will ensure sustainability and aid exports to high quality conscious economies like Korea and Japan.”
