COVID-19 2nd wave: Textile production dips in India's Surat

21 Apr '21

2 min read

Pic: azadjain1 / Shutterstock.com

Textile production has decreased in India's textile city of Surat due to the onset of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to various associations. Restriction of working hours, migration of workers, and textile traders testing positive are among the factors adversely affecting textile production and trade in manmade textile hub.

“In the last one-and-a-half months, the fabric production has been reduced by one crore metre per day. Usually, we produced 4.5 crore metre daily,” Ashok Jirawala, the president of the Federation of Gujarat Weavers Association (FOGWA) told The Indian Express this week.

Fabric production has currently declined by around 22 per cent compared to March 2021, according to FOGWA.

Though the government is yet to announce a full-fledged lockdown, a number of workers are migrating from Surat due to the fear that it might be imposed. As a result, workers' strength in factories has gone down by 25-30 per cent. "Workers are still leaving. In the coming days, more workers are expected to leave. If the current COVID-19 situation continues then we will clock huge losses,” Jirawala added.

The textile business in Surat has also been affected due to lockdown and curfew in other states. “Due to the COVID-19 situation, several marriages, which were fixed in the summer in UP and Bihar and other north Indian states, have been cancelled and this has also affected our business. Our markets in many areas in UP are under lockdown and the situation is similar in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra,” Pramod Chaudhary, former president of Southern Gujarat Textile processing Association (SGTPA) told The Indian Express.

The decrease in trade volumes is reflected in the number of trucks carrying textile parcels from Surat to other parts of the country. Compared to the usual 350-400 trucks carrying around 150 to 170 parcels each, the number of trucks moving out of the city has come down to only 70, Surat Mercantile Association president Narendra Saboo said in the same newspaper report.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) have requested the state chief minister Vijay Rupani to impose a complete lockdown of at least one week. The voluntary 2-day lockdown on weekends is not enough to break the chain of the corona virus, according to these trade bodies.

There are 175 textile trading markets in Surat, which employ lakhs of workers.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)

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