Facing challenges, due to second wave of COVID-19, Indian apparel exporters have urged Government and buyers to support them.
They urged Government to declare apparel exports as essential services and exempt these exporting units from lockdowns across India.
The industry has also requested buyers not to cancel orders and demand discount on the orders.
“We request that the Central Government should issue necessary instructions to all the State Governments to declare apparel exports as essential services and exempt them from shutdown,” AEPC Chairman Dr. A. Sakthivel wrote in a letter to the PM Narendra Modi.
On the other hand, AEPC also held a video conference meeting with buying houses and associations to discuss the second wave of pandemic. The AEPC Chairman requested the buying houses and agents to explain to the international clients that the situation in India is getting better each day.
“Due to the lockdown, if the units are unable to execute these orders, this will result not only in the short-term loss of orders and export earnings, but also a long-term loss of the buyers. Our competing countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Pakistan are making all efforts to take orders from these regions and if we lose our buyers at this point, they will not come back in the near future,” Dr. Sakthivel said.
He further added that most of the apparel exports are season and fashion sensitive, and their salvage value becomes zero if the production and shipment are not done in time. Considering the perishable nature of the product, apparel exports should be seen as essential services. Besides, many neighbouring and competing countries have already accorded apparel exports the status of essential services.
Meanwhile, as per the AEPC statement, representatives of buying houses and associations said that they are trying to convince the buyers that it is a temporary setback and things will soon get better.
The buyers are also ‘extremely compassionate’ towards helping India but, unfortunately, as lot of businesses are seasonally time-sensitive, the current lockdown will impact most of the time-sensitive orders. Though buyers are not looking at mass cancellations, like it happened in 2020, certain products will not be able to be shipped.
