The appreciation of the Rupee against the USD has taken its toll on the exports of all textile and apparel products from India. There has been a general fall in exports of apparel items across the board..
Lets have a look at how the rupee appreciation has affected the exports of Mens and Boys jeans from India to USA.. I have also taken comparative figures from Bangladesh to see how it fares vis-a-vis India..
Exports of Mens/Boys jeans from India and Bangladesh to USA in 2006 and 2007
| 2006(doz pcs) | 2007(doz pcs) | Change(%) | ||
| India | ||||
| Ist quarter | 24000 | 22000 | -8 | |
| 2nd quarter | 24000 | 33000 | 37 | |
| 3rd quarter | 55000 | 63000 | 14 | |
| 4th quarter | 33000 | |||
| Bangladesh | ||||
| 1st quarter | 205000 | 312000 | 52 | |
| 2nd quarter | 390000 | 454000 | 16 | |
| 3rd quarter | 599000 | 739000 | 23 | |
| 4th quarter | 570000 |
Source :US customs
From the figures given above , we can see that the exports of jeans from India registered a fall of 8% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the first quarter of 2006. However, the second and the third quarter have seen a steady increase in exports of jeans to US inspite of the appreciation of rupee.
On the other hand, the exports from Bangladesh continue to register a robust increase in all the three quarters of 2007..Bangladesh,in any case, has a huge lead over India in exports of Jeans and it seems to be increasing the gap further.
What is interesting is that the exports from India have not registered a fall despite the huge appreciation of rupee. This signifies that the additional capacities of jeans manufacturing have been created in India and the increase in exports would have been very significant, had the rupee not appreciated so much.
However, the next 2 quarters would show whether the Indian companies can sustain the growth in exports despite rupee appreciation or not – though i believe that the exports may grow stably given the excess capacities available in the industry..
