SME Times News Bureau | 31 Jan, 2018
Minister
for Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday said export
prospect for Khadi goods is beyond doubt as global customers are
increasingly seeking eco-friendly goods.
Speaking
at a round table discussion on taking KHADI organized by Indian
Institute of Foreign Trade, Prabhu said, "The export prospects of
Khadi is rest assured with world moving towards natural and
Eco-friendly Products. More and more people are becoming conscious of
responsibility towards the environment and ecology and greater demand
is being generated for bio-degradable and Eco-friendly products."
"It
is for this reason the new MEIS 2015-20 policy also emphasizes on
export incentives on eco-friendly textiles giving it a 34% growth
last years from 52,000 crore to 70,000 crore turn over," he added.
The
minster said that while textile sector being the largest source of
employment generation in the country contributing to country’s 15%
exports; share of Khadi sector is very low (less than 0.22%) in total
textile sector.
"Hence
focus on exports of this sector becomes important.End to end
marketing strategy with support from trading houses and academic
institutes like IIFT is the need of the hour," he said.
KHADI
AND Village Industries Commission chairman
V.K.Saxena, who
was the Guest of honour, said, "Its
export worthiness also comes from the fact that Indian Khadi earns a
lot of water and carbon foot print since it requires only 3 litres of
water as compared to 56 liters in other fabrics."
IIFT
Director Manoj Pant pointed out that apart from the supply side
constraints for raw material procurement and production, there is
also a strong need for establishing a strong demand in global
markets.
"This
will require the innovation in terms of diversification in product
and market. Lack of product diversification is quite visible through
limited export basket of Khadi which currently includes silk and
muslin, readymade garments, textile-based Khadi and charkha," he
said.