Strong voices are being raised across the country against high price of yarn and other raw materials for garment manufacturing. While Tirupur saw a day-long strike on this issue yesterday, Jaipur is also now demanding strongly to control the prices of raw materials.

In a press release, Garment Exporters Association of Rajasthan (GEAR), the leading association of Rajasthan’s garment exporters, has said that the industry has been facing difficult times, primarily due to increase in raw material prices.

The trade body has urged the Government to kindly take up this matter seriously and curb the exports of raw cotton. If the prices stand at where they are, a lot of factories will permanently shut down, and thousands will lose jobs.

Not only cotton, yarn prices of viscose and polyester base have also seen steep hike. On the other hand, the price of packing materials like poly-bags, corrugated boxes has also been sky rocketing.

Exporters are facing more difficulties as Indian Rupee is getting stronger; India’s products are being uncompetitive in international markets.

Vimal Shah, President, GEAR, the garment and fabric manufacturers resumed production operations quicker than the spinning sector. This resulted in the yarn inventory with the spinning mills drying up, while the cotton prices continued to rise.

He further added that the buyers are unwilling to increase prices, more so due to the price competition posed by other countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Jaipur hub does an annual garment manufacturing business of around Rs. 7,000 crore.