Amritsar shawl units bear the brunt, exports nosediving due to Russia-Ukraine War

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 18

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has put a spanner in the restoration of the pre-Covid shawl export level from the holy city. The share of export out of the Rs 2,500-crore local shawl industry stands at nearly Rs 500 crore.

Rajinder Jain, a shawl manufacturer, said the economic crisis triggered by the prolong war instilled the uncertainty. It held back people and traders from investing in the non-essential and ornamental items. Locally rolled out shawls find their markets in those countries where the NRIs are settled in good numbers like Canada, US, UK, Australia and others. “The exports had declined sharply in two consecutive fiscals 2020-21 and 2021-22. Keeping in view the returning of normalcy in all the sections of trade, there was a strong hope of similar activity happening in this branch of the woolen industry. Alas, but this was not the case”, he rued. He said that prolong war turned the sentiments negative and several big economies like England were staring at recession.

Neeraj Malhotra, another shawl manufacturer and exporter, said raw material of shawls like worsted yarn, viscose yarn, polyester and apparel wool saw steep rise in their prices this year. It made the business more costly. Monopolistic attitude of some big players in the yarn industry remains unchecked despite requests against it to the government, he said.

The industry employs over 5,000 people who work on 1,500 power looms and 500 imported shuttleless looms. Besides, nearly 20,000 people, especially women from the rural areas of Amritsar and Gurdaspur, are engaged in embroidery and nearly 4,000 embroidery machines are also deployed for the purpose.

Piara Lal Seth, general secretary,Shawl Club of India, said: “This is another blow to the indigenous industry after the Covid-19 battered period.” He said the Union Government recently released figures of 27.5 per cent decline in export. He said across the country export of finished goods was slow to recover. Similar trend was being observed with the local industry which falls in the finished goods.

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