Powerloom weavers see a jump in demand for grey fabric from African countries

The festival season was unexpectedly a boom this year for powerloom weavers at Somanur, Thekkalur, Avinashi and parts of Palladam in Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts. They are seeing higher wages and increasing demand for fabric after more than six years.

“The demand for fabrics woven on normal powerlooms was high before 2014 as there was a good demand from African countries. The government also gave incentives for exports to the African countries. After that these export orders declined. Now, master weavers are giving 20 to 25 paise more to the job workers and looms are not available as the demand from Africa has revived. The demand is mainly for 50 inch wide fabrics woven from 20s count cotton yarn,” says E. Bhoopathi, president of the Coimbatore District Jobworking Powerloom Weavers’ Association.

K. Sakthivel, president of the Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council, says demand from Africa declined for a few years mainly because of currency issues in some of the African countries. The African market switches between Chinese and Indian exporters and this time, the demand is more from India. When the demand moves to China, there is about 20% drop in demand from India. When India gets the African market, it sees a 20% jump in exports. China is not focusing on textiles now and hence, the African orders have improved for Indian suppliers.

The demand is for a specific variety of fabric – those woven in regular powerlooms and not the automatic looms. The market in Africa is also into fashion and there are more than 50 multi-colour designs that are printed and sold to African buyers. Earlier, it used to be less than half a dozen designs in two or three colours.

However, the weavers should also be careful, he cautions. The number of powerlooms in Tamil Nadu that used to weave for the African market used to be about 35,000 earlier. Now, it is just about 25,000. Weavers are getting better wages now. But, they should not switch over completely to the variety in demand for Africa. There should be cautious increase of capacity and the weavers should maintain a balance of the markets they cater to, he said.

G. Arulmozhi, president of the Openend Spinning Mills’ Association, said there is a good demand for 20, 25 and 30 count yarns from the weavers. The mills are getting only nominal price for the yarn but the demand is huge and several mills that were earlier catering to Tiruppur and Karur markets have now switched over to the varieties in demand. Most of the openend mills are operating full capacity because of the African exports, he said.

Mr. Sakthivel added that the Tamil Nadu government should support the weavers set up a finishing unit in the State. “If we have a finishing facility, ₹1,500 crore worth exports can move to Tamil Nadu from the western States. We are currently supplying the fabric to exporters in Maharashtra or Gujarat,” he said.