Date:19/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/09/19/stories/2005091902111300.htm

Back India eyes 4% share in global handicrafts trade in 3 years

K.R. Srivats

New Delhi , Sept. 18

INDIA plans to grow its share in global handicrafts trade to about 4 per cent in the next three years from the current level of less than 2 per cent. The global handicraft trade is currently estimated to be around $150 billion.

"We have been asked to increase our (India's) share in global handicrafts trade to 4 per cent in value terms in the next three years. Our current share is about 1.6 per cent," the Chairman of the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH), Mr Navratan Samdria, told Business Line here on Saturday.

EPCH is an apex body of the Government for the promotion of handicraft exports. During 2004-05, exports of handicrafts in dollar terms stood at about $2.98 billion (Rs 13,032.78 crore).

In the first five months of the current fiscal (April-August 2005), handicraft exports had increased by nearly 15 per cent to $970.81 million (provisional data) from $844.49 million in the year-ago period. In rupee terms, exports of handicrafts have increased from Rs 3,842.99 crore in April-August 2005 to Rs 4,226.52 crore. This represents an almost 10 per cent increase over the export performance.

While exports of art metal wares increased by 8.32 per cent in April-August 2005 to Rs 1,303.75 crore (Rs 1,203.63 crore), exports of embroidered and crocheted goods surged by 11.27 per cent to Rs 1,028.51 crore (Rs 924.35 crore) during the first five months of the current fiscal.

Exports of hand-printed textiles and scarves increased by 8.60 per cent to Rs 761.05 crore (Rs 700.80 crore).