The 61st National Garment Fair, country’s largest apparel trade show, organised by the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI) began at Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon in Mumbai from today.
The three-day B2B fair is spread over about five lakhs square feet with over 700 stalls displaying about 780 brands, CMAI president, Rahul Mehta said.
Around 40,000 retailers from all over the country are expected to visit the fair. For the first time, CMAI has invited e-commerce companies to participate in the event, according to organiser sources.
Mr. Mehta said that the total size of Indian apparel industry is around Rs. 3,00,000 crore. This included Indian export of Rs. 1,00,000 crore and domestic apparel industry to the tune of Rs. 2,00,000 crore. The size of Indian apparel industry is estimated to double within next five years.
He also said that country’s garment export increased by 12.2 per cent to 16.8 billion US Dollar in financial years 2014-15. CMAI expected to achieve export target of 18 billion US Dollar for financial year 2015-16. In view of the infrastructure issues and rising labour cost in the competitive countries like Bangladesh and China along with improved US economy, the prospect of growth in export sector looked brighter for the country. The early signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with European Union would help India’s garment export to double in European countries. The economic growth and good monsoon ahead is also expected to boost domestic garment industry. The country has witnessed 7 to 8 per cent growth in 2013 and 12 per cent growth in 2014.
