Sanjiv Ranjan, Indian ambassador to Colombia, has said that there is a huge potential for Indian apparel exporters in Colombia, particularly in its ‘resilient and innovative’ fashion industry with domestic sales of about US $ 7 billion.

Addressing an event, he said that India’s apparel export to Colombia is just 3 per cent of its global imports.

“This does not really reflect the strength of what our sector stands for. We have a huge untapped potential in this sector which needs to be explored and utilised by our exporters,” he added.

Notably, the annual household expenditure on fashion in Columbia is roughly 24.3 trillion Columbian peso.

Columbia has a robust network of almost 14,000 companies in the fashion industry, mostly in the small and medium sized categories. Even during the peak of the pandemic in June 2020, clothing accounted for nearly 57 per cent of the total fashion spending followed by jewellery.

“It is one of the most vibrant sectors of the region. While the Government is trying at its level, the private sector should find out how to contribute to this resilient and innovative sector,” the ambassador said.

It is pertinent to mention here that of the top 10 apparel imports from India to Colombia, only two are in the MMF category and the rest are cotton garments. This may be the reason Bangladesh and Vietnam are scoring ahead of India.

India’s apparel export from India was around US $ 21 million in 2019.