Indian High Commissioner in Canada Ajay Bisaria has said there is a growing trust in India’s growth story amongst Canadian companies and a huge opportunity for Indian apparels to increase their market share in Canada.
Addressing an event of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), he said that looking at the India-Canada corridor, there is a great deal of faith amongst Canadian companies in the medium- and long-term prospects of India, apart from conversations on immediate issues.
He also said that today India has a strategic partnership with Canada, which is propelled and fuelled by the economic partnership.
It is worth noting that Canada’s market size for readymade garments is about US $ 10 billion and India’s apparel export to this market is just about US $ 318 million.
“I think this number can go up tremendously given the huge opportunity. We know that many top quality brands GAP, M&S, Uniqlo and Calvin Klein are already sourcing from India,” he said.
AEPC is also in touch with Canadian buyers to increase business with Indian apparel exporters.
Dr. A. Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC, said that Canada is a thrust market for India and continuous efforts have been made to increase India’s market share in the same.
“India is focusing on higher value and specialised products like manmade fibre (MMF) apparels, medical textiles and technical textiles. Canadian investors can set up manufacturing facilities in India directly or through joint ventures,” he said, inviting Canadian companies to partner in building R&D, design innovation and incubation centres in India.
“Canada imports US $ 4,244 million of MMF garments from the world whereas it imports only US $ 65 million from India. India’s share in Canada’s MMF garments imports is only 1.5 per cent. With a view to diversifying Indian apparel exports, we are working on expansion and improving MMF products in India’s apparel export basket,” said Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman, Export Promotion, AEPC.
It is pertinent to mention here that overall there are already 600 active Canadian companies in India. There are 1,000 Canadian companies doing business with India. Even in pandemic times, the overall engagement was about US $ 100 billion if one counts trade, investment, remittances and tourism spend.
