Noida: No orders for next 2 years, say garment exporters

NOIDA: Apparel is one of the largest industries in Noida, but it is an uncertain time for over 500 garment manufacturers of the district, many of whom are exporters to major brands abroad. They claim that not only have their future shipments been cancelled, but consignments in transit have been scrapped as well. And even if the lockdown ends in May, they would have no orders to service for at least the next two years.

“It’s a fact that we have no orders to service for the remainder of 2020 and garment exporters would miss the western Christmas market of 2021 too because sampling and order booking happens a year ahead. So, it is a two-year gap for the garment industry and even after lockdown, we don’t think this segment will be able to make a comeback,” said garment exporter

Rajeev Bansal

.

According to exporters, payments of previous dispatches are also withheld by importers in the UK and Europe. These exporters employ about 50,000 people, and 60% of them are women engaged in tailoring, thread-cutting and other hands-on work.

“We have exporters who cater to some top-line clothing lines globally, including

Zara

, H&M, M&S,

Arcadia

, Tom Taylor and

Aeropostle

. Several consignments have been cancelled. Some imports have been stopped and cancelled even when they were in transit. Future orders have been cancelled too and payments of earlier orders have not come through, so the garment exporters are in a spot,” said Bansal, also the national secretary of the

Indian Industries Association

(IIA), which represents small, medium and micro enterprises.

Another Noida-based luxury clothing and accessories exporter,

Umesh Batra

, said. “The kind of clothing and accessories we send overseas has always had a fixed clientele but this time, no one is interested in uber-luxury products. There are no orders for Christmas this year, and even for 2021 sampling can’t be done now. So we have come to realise that we will only be able to cater to the export market in 2022 and no sooner than that.”

According to the garment exporters, a comeback is not going to be easy post-lockdown either. “Even if we restart work with gloves and in highly sanitised environments, we expect new, post-Covid-19 compliances for exports will kick in,” Bansal said.

Meanwhile, there has been some workforce loss as migrant workers have returned to their home state and may not come back to the city soon. “The rest who are paid between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 per month are left in the lurch as the scope for garment industry in the near future is dim. Till now we are paying salaries, but don’t know about the future,” he added.

“Garments export is the worst hit among all SMEs at the moment because the consumer pattern has changed globally overnight and high-end clothing is the last thing among priorities. People are going to buy more of essentials than luxury products and certainly, it will take a while before the export market makes a U-turn,”

Kulmani Gupta

, president of IIA-Noida chapter, said.

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