National Gem of China - The Silk Industry

By: &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1631)%>" target="_blank">Fibre2Fashion.com

One of the best materials for clothing, "Silk" was discovered in China. No other material can be compared with the look and feeling of richness of silk. Still the discovery of silk like when, where or how it was discovered is a mystery for many people. When silk was discovered, China was very fast in terms of technological development, so Chinese people have developed new ways of using silk to make clothes. Later on Chinese silk was passed to Europe, Rome, India and many more countries. Roman women were crazy for Chinese silk as this was a symbol of wealth and high social status. Even nowadays also silk, in some sense, is some kind of luxury.

Chinese silk has a long-standing history and it also quoted as a "National Gem of China". The silk industry has maintained trend for robust development in China. National Bureau of Statistics on the statistics of more than 2,204 silk enterprises shows that the silk industrial output value totaled 82.9 billion before 5-6 years.

China has long been reputed as a leading silk producer in the world and its silk products has exported to other central Asian and European countries for the past 2,000 years. In China, currently one million workers are employed in the silk sector and the major silk producing areas are the province of Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong.

In the year 1987 Hangzhou city of China is developed as a "China Silk Town". This is the only market in China for silk wholesale covering 25,000 square meters. Currently, it has over 600 silk enterprises, dealing with all kinds of real silk fabric, clothes, crafts, raw materials and so on. These products are not only sold in China but also exported to countries and regions like EU, US, Hong Kong and South Asia.

In the year 2006, Ministry of Commerce estimates that annual silk industrial output value is expected to reach US $31.25 billion in 2010. Ministry released the development target of silk industry in 2006-2010. It expects silk cocoon production will increase to 850, 00-900,000 tons by 2010. Silk production will reach 170,000-190,000 tons, an increase of 66.7 percent, as compared with 2005. The Ministry requires manufacturers to sharpen competitive edge in technological innovation, and develop sophisticated products, since China's silk export is expected to increase to US $5.5 billion in 2010. China's raw silk production accounts for 74 percent of the world's total output, and 90 percent of world exports market. China is the world's largest silk producer. In 2005, China produced 680,000 tons of silk cocoon and 130,000 tons of silk. In 2000-2005, China's silk output achieved an average annual growth rate of 14.2 percent.

In early 2008, China's silk industry was in blues due to rise in production cost. Of the 107 existing silk enterprises in Zhejiang Province, nearly 56 have incurred a loss in the first quarter of this year. The once resplendent silk industry is facing problems that seem insurmountable. According to the estimates made by Zhejiang Silk Association some two years ago, profits of the local silk enterprises could reach a total of 1000 million Yuan. However, the present situation reflects a different scenario as profits in this s pring season were not even 100 million Yuan.

China is one of the leading suppliers of silk in the world. China exports raw silk to silk made-ups. Following is the data with item wise export and country wise export from January 2008 to October 2008.