Lifestyle products particularly carpets fill the order book of exporters

As export orders for low value lifestyle products start kicking in, labour-intensive sectors such as handicrafts, ceramic products and cotton yarn/fabrics are upbeat about improvement.  

Apart from the increase in global demand for  engineering goods, chemicals, the low-value lifestyle products such as machine made carpets and non-leather footwear are also improving as per Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

“Our exporters’ order books have improved by almost 40% compared to the pre-Covid-19 period,” said Ajay Sahai, director-general.

According to the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), the handicraft sector expects an export growth of about 30% in the ongoing quarter and outbound shipments could end up reaching the same level as in 2019-20.

Rise in prices of raw materials such as wood and metals, and labour costs have earlier disrupted the order book but export oriented businesses are likely to reach the close to pre covid level by the end of the ongoing quarter as the corresponding quarter of 2019, businesses led by furniture, home and high end lifestyle products while fashion jewellery segment have yet to see a pickup.

Leather exports from India shrank 32.16% year-on-year in the April 2020-February 2021 period while handicrafts contracted 8.49%.

The UK, EU and China are disturbed because of the pandemic and the order book has been impacted because of that. We expect our exports to decline 20-25% by the end of March,” said Siddh Nath Singh, chairman, Carpet Export Promotion Council.

Rising exports from China has led to the shortage of containers in the region as most of the empty containers are available only for exports from China. As per FIEO,  Carpet exports rose 3.16% year-on-year in the first eleven months of this fiscal.