The Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA) has approached all leading banks to tide over the financial crisis faced by small knitwear exporters in the city. The association has urged banks to help exporters saddled with rising yarn prices. Raja M Shanmugham, President, TEA said, the Tiruppur knitwear sector is currently going through difficult times due to the unprecedented rise in cotton and yarn prices that have almost doubled since last year. Tiruppur knitwear sector houses 95 per cent MSME exporters who largely depend on bank funds for their operations.
In FY2021-22, the cluster exported garments worth Rs 33,525 crore or $4.51 billion. Eighteen months ago, knitwear units in the cluster could buy one kg of yarn for Rs 200 but now they can buy only 400 gm with that amount, Shanmugham highlighted. He said, the TEA had earlier appealed to the textile mills associations SIMA Coimbatore, TASMA Dindigul and ITF Coimbatore to advise members to revoke cotton yarn price hike of Rs 40 per kg for all counts immediately and restore it to April 2022 price level.
Last week, the association also urged the Centre to ban cotton and cotton yarn exports immediately till the prices stabilize as the knitwear garment exporters fear that they would not be able to complete the orders taken already based on the previous input costs, Shanmugham added. He said, cotton and cotton yarn prices would soften only if the government bans exports till prices are regularized in the domestic market.
