Chennai: While India has seen its apparel exports growing in 2024, apparel imports into the country have recorded a surge – growing in double-digits since September. Industry finds that a recovering Bangladesh as well as China and Vietnam are increasingly shipping apparels into the country.Indian apparel exports grew 8.39 per cent from $14.4 billion in calendar year 2023 to $15.7 billion in 2024. However, this does not essentially reflect a rosy picture of domestic apparel manufacturing as imports have started growing significantly since September.In September, apparel imports grew by 16.8 per cent and in October it grew by 12.7 per cent, as per the data from Confederation Indian Textile Industries. The data on the imports of November and December are not available.The increased shipments are thought to have come from Bangladesh, China and Vietnam. Bangladesh, which was going through a turmoil in the first half of the year, has started seeing a rise in exports since September. In September, Bangladesh’s exports grew by around 15 per cent and it further grew by 20 per cent in October.“India has a free trade agreement with Bangladesh and this allows duty-free imports from Bangladesh,” said Sanjay Jain, MD, TT Textiles.However, China and Vietnam too have been increasingly sending their apparel to India. India’s import of apparel from Vietnam has grown from $16 million in 2020 to $52.89 million in 2023 and it continues to grow. With $3971 million, China had 38 per cent share in India’s textile and apparel imports in 2023.The higher cotton prices in India against global rates and the Quality Control Orders in yarn and fibre too have led to increased imports in the downstream products, including apparels.Due to higher domestic prices, the import of raw and waste cotton was up by 84 per cent to $918 million between April and December this year.
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