India is looking to expand its paltry 1.24 per cent share of the Japanese textile market by getting its
government to pitch in and help Indian exporters by improving the testing standards and better understanding
the requirements of their customers.
Kick-starting the initiative, the Central Government held a workshop in association with Japanese quality
regulator QTEC. The idea, said Subrata Gupta, Joint Secretary in the Textiles Ministry, was to change the
"mindset" and "enhance" the quantum of textiles exports to Japan. Japan is a major textile importing country
with almost 97 per cent of their textile requirement being sourced through imports mainly from China (62.11 per
cent), Vietnam (10.56 per cent), Indonesia (4.12 per cent) and Bangladesh (2.76 per cent). India accounts for
just 1.24 per cent. The association with QTEC is important in view of the fact that India’s exports have been
going down compared to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam. For instance, it could only notch up $40 billion
in revenues from textile exports as against a target of $47.5 billion set in 2015-16.
The association with QTEC is expected to not only expose Indian exporters to quality expectations from
Japanese buyers but also help the textile ministry give a push to overall exports. "This is the first of many
other measures we plan to increase exports to Japan, which is one of the major textile importing countries.
It’s a market which has tremendous potential for India," said Ajit B Chavan, Secretary, Textiles Committee.
Asked whether the Chinese presence was likely to be an obstacle, Chavan said that once the Indian exporters
understood the requirements of the Japanese market, "wresting" a part of the market from competitors would not
be difficult. The MoU with Japanese Textile Products Quality and Technology Centre (QTEC) was signed in
November last year, during the visit of PM Narendra Modi to Japan.