Handicrafts exports up about 14% to $204 million in April y-o-y

NEW DELHI: Handicrafts exports grew by about 14 per cent to USD 204 million in April year-on-year, mainly driven by the growing demand from the US and European markets.

In April last fiscal, the exports during the period stood at USD 179.9 million, according to the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts ( EPCH) data.

The council expects the exports growth to continue in the current fiscal.

"We expect the exports to touch USD 2.7 billion in 2011-12 due to increasing demand not only from the US and Europe, but also from emerging markets like Middle East, Latin America and Africa," EPCH Executive Director Rakesh Kumar said.

The US and Europe together account for about 60 per cent of the country's handicraft shipments.

Among the items that registered the maximum growth in exports were wood wares (26.9 per cent), followed by imitation jewellery (21 per cent), shawls as art wares (19 per cent), miscellaneous handicrafts (15 per cent) and art metal wares (13.49 per cent).

Moradabad, Jaipur, Saharanpur, Jodhpur and Narsapur are the major handicraft hubs catering to world markets, employing one million people.

During April-March 2010-11, handicrafts shipments jumped about 26 per cent to USD 2.3 billion as compared to the previous fiscal.

The growth is in sync with the country's total merchandise exports growth which registered the highest ever growth of 37.5 per cent to USD 245.9 billion in 2010-11.