India explores mrkts in S America, Asia for textile exports

NEW DELHI: India is exploring new markets in South America and Asia to boost export of textiles as orders from the US and Europe, which have been hit hard by financial crisis, are drying up.

"Imports by the US and Europe is reducing... their economies are moving towards recession... so it is very difficult to export from here to the US and Europe," Minister of Textile Shankarsinh Vaghela said here on Wednesday.

US and Europe are the largest importers of Indian textile including apparels, he said.

"We are exploring markets in South American countries like Brazil and Argentina and Russia, China, Japan and UAE," he said.

Textile exports in 2007-08 was $22 billion against the target of $25.06 billion. Share of textiles in the country's total export too fell to 13.5 per cent in last fiscal from 15.16 per cent in 2006-07.

The government has set an export target of $55 billion by 2012, which the Minister said would be "difficult" to meet in wake of the financial meltdown.

He said although the export achievements in 2007-08 fell short of the target, it was $2.3 billion more than 2006-07.