Seafood exporters hooking in US buyers after months of stalled orders

Pune: India's textile, apparel and seafood exporters spent Tuesday glued to their screens, firing off emails, taking late-night calls and reopening negotiations with US buyers as optimism returned after months of stalled orders and caution.

Since Monday night, exporters have been seeking appointments with American customers, relaunching talks and planning trips to the US to recover business lost over the past six months, after retaliatory tariffs had slowed trade and forced price cuts.

"Everything was so quiet for the last 3-4 months. However, my office has already fixed a few appointments since Monday evening as soon as the deal was announced," said Vijay Agarwal, chairman of industry body The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil). "Even the Americans were waiting for the deal as they were not very happy about shifting orders from India to some of the countries."


As per US government data for January to November 2025, India accounted for 45% of cotton sheet imports into the US and 38% of terry towel volumes. India's textile and apparel exports were $37 billion in 2024-25, while seafood exports were $7.35 billion. The US remains the single largest market for both sectors.

The seafood sector, despite a lean shrimp season, is also seeing renewed activity.

"The enquiries are flying in. Next week is full of customer meetings," said Thomas Jose, director at Choice Group, a leading marine products exporter based in Kochi. "India is expected to get a lot of attention at the North America Seafood Expo taking place at Boston in April," he added.

Garment exporters have also begun nudging US buyers to restart stalled processes.

"We have written to the buyers to put the sampling programme back in work as the deal is done and it is just a matter of time," said Premal Udani, managing director of Kaytee Corporation, a Mumbai-based knitwear and woven garment exporter with manufacturing in Tiruppur. In Tiruppur, exporters are discussing plans to rehire labour that was let go during the slowdown. "Everyone is buoyant, we are once again talking about bringing back the labour," said one exporter.