The wool sector in India is being promoted in a big way. A total grant of Rs 33.98 crores has been released for pashmina development and promotion in the last three years.

Health coverage and medicines have also been provided to over two lakh pashmina goats annually. Food supplements have also been provided to 40,000 goats annually, pre-empting starvation deaths.

As a result pashmina productivity per goat has been enhanced by 9.3 per cent. Close to 525 tents have been provided to nomads in Ladakh and five solarised community centers have also been completed.

India’s wool and woolen textile industry is the seventh largest in the world. India’s wool and woolen industry can broadly be divided into worsted yarn, woolen yarn, wool tops, fabric, shoddy yarn, shoddy fabrics, blankets, knitwear, handmade carpets and machine made carpets.

Woolen handmade carpets contribute 72.7 per cent to total woolen exports.

About 70 per cent of the exports go to the US and European countries, so any fall in demand impacts exports to a substantial level.

The slowdown in global demand has affected medium-sized manufacturers in Ludhiana and Amritsar. Punjab accounts for 35 per cent of the total exports of wool and wool-blended products followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan.