Silk, a fabric that portrays the golden era of the Maharajas and which adorns the deities, holds a prominent place in the Indian tradition and culture. Whether it is haute couture or traditional Indian bridal wear, bed covers or upholstery, the demand for Indian silk is not only faring well in the domestic market but in global markets too.

While China is the world’s largest producer of silk contributing around 85 per cent of the global produce, India stands second supplying around 13 per cent. Significant progress has been made in the production of raw silk, where production has jumped  from 15,742 tonnes in 2003-04 to 18,475 tonnes at the end of 2006-07.
What’s more, India also has the distinction of producing all the known variety of silk viz  Mulberry, Eri, Muga and Tasar. Indian silk is gaining greater demand in major markets like US, Western Europe, West Asia and also foraying into newer markets like Latin America and Russia.

Export scenario
Indian silk exports, which reaches 190 countries, have increased over the years, where export earnings have steadily risen from Rs 2,359 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 3,244 crore in 2006-07. Currently, the top five importers are USA, UK, Italy, UAE and Honduras. Export of Indian silk comprises mainly of natural silk yarn, fabrics, made-ups, read-ymade garment, silk carpets and silk waste. For years now, fabrics have been a major category in silk exports contributing a whopping 60 per cent of the total exports.

However, we now see other categories like made-ups, ready made garments docking a good growth rate in the recent years. For example, ready-made category recorded an export earning of Rs 1,165 crore during 2006-07 as compared to Rs 842 crore in the previous year, showing a growth of 38 per cent. Ready-made garments account for 36 per cent of the total silk good export.
“We see a huge demand for dress materials readymade garments in both Mulberry and Vanya (Non Mulberry) silk in the global markets. The major importing countries for this category were US, UK, UAE, Italy, Spain, France, Saudi Arabia, Denmark and Singapore,” says Central Silk Board Chairman H Hanumanthappa.

Product categories like the sarees, bridal wear, fabric for home furnishing & interior decorates, cushions, jacquard and embroidery is expected to be key drivers of exports in the coming year.

“Consumers today are ready to spend more on home furnishing items. This is the category where we see the price and quantum going up,” says S K Churiwala, CMD of Silktex, a Bangalore-based exporter of luxury silk for home furnishing.

Silk exporters in the country are now increasingly focussing on design and innovative value-added goods like bed covers, cushion covers, embroidery, jacquards to give an extra edge to their portfolios.

“The trick in the trade today is to offer value additions through design, for example jacquards, embroidery. This is the only way that we can get competitive in the global markets,” says Aditya Himatsingka, Executive Director of Himatsingka Seide, one of the leading Indian silk exporter.

All about the money
The Central Silk Board, a national organisation under the Government of India, which oversees the development of sericulture and silk industry, has set an ambitious target for export earning at Rs 3,770 crore for 2007-08. However, currently the exporters are hit by the appreciating rupee against the dollar. With USA being the biggest market for Indian silk exporters, the weakening of the dollar is expected to make the country’s export uncompetitive. At present, the US contributes about 26 per cent of the total export earnings. “We have been seriously affected, where the dollar has dropped 10 per cent in the past 40-50 days, the fluctuation is usually one-two per cent, which is alright. Government must interfere and control this rupee appreciation,” says T V Maruthi, Managing Partner of Hanuman Weaving Factory, located in Bangalore.

However, silk exporters failed to predict the extent to which their export earnings could decline due to the weakening dollar. “At this time it’s difficult to predict how this phenomena will affect our overall export earnings for the fiscal. However, this will take a straight hit to the bottom line,” opines Mr Aditya of Himatsingka.

Woes & actions
Fluctuating exchange currency is just a part of the burden the Indian silk exporters carry. They are also tackling issues such as high production cost, high interest cost, pressure on prices and growing cost of inputs.
However, the government has taken up certain programmes to enhance exports. Promoting silk is one of the initiatives taken by the government and Central Silk Board.

It has placed Indian silk on new platforms by participation in domestic and international trade fairs. “Indian silk must gain more publicity and promotion in global markets to increase exports. Most often, Indian silk is mistaken for Thai silk,” says Mr Maruthi of Hanuman Weaving Factory.

Besides this, programmes are being taken up to improve technologies at all stages of the process of silk development and diversify products with inputs for improvement of looms and designs to enhance export share of the country.

The Central Silk Board with the support of the Government of India has been able to improve the quality of seeds, silkworms, mechanisation and transfer of technology from lab to land. “Technology has brought down the cost of production of silk to Rs 120/kg of Mulberry (bivoltine). We expect this figure to come down to Rs 80-90/kg soon,” Mr Hanumanthappa says.

Traditional silk producing states mainly Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir, supply more than 80 per cent of the raw silk. During the year 2006-07, these states contributed 16,300 tonne i.e. about 88 per cent of the total raw silk production, recording a growth of 6.41 per cent. And of this Karnataka alone produced 42 per cent, at 7,883 tonnes, becoming the largest silk producing state.

Adding to this, non-traditional silk producing states — Maharashtra, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh have also increased the acreage under sericulture. For instance Maharashtra, which had 1,432 hectare under the cultivation of Mulberry in 2005-06, increased to 2,647 hectare in 2006-07.

Way forward
Experts feel that the key for success of the industry lies in higher growth rate of raw silk production, adoption of improved technology, increasing the acreage under cultivation and streamlining the unorganised areas under cultivation.

“Mulberry, considered as a secondary crop has now become a primary crop. This shows that sericulture is a viable option, hence increasing the area under cultivation. We expect to achieve the raw silk production target of 26,000 tonnes by 2011-12,” explains Mr Hanumanthappa.