Organised by The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI), the 5th edition of ‘Surat International Textile Expo- SITEX-2021’ from 9 to 11 January 2021 at Surat concluded on a highly positive note.
Ashish Gujarati, Vice President, SGGCI, told Team Apparel Resources, “The event saw around 22,000 visitors and generated business of worth Rs. 700 crore. 110 exhibitors booked around 2,000 machines – mainly rapier jacquard, air-jet and waterjet loom, digital printers and circular knitting machines.”
It is pertinent to mention here that SITEX-2021 was the first physical event after Covid phase.
The SGCCI had planned well to follow Covid protocol. Its online registration and monitoring system distinctly showed how many visitors were there in the exhibition hall at a particular time.
Though the hall had a capacity of around 2,000 people at one time, the organisers allowed only 950 visitors at a time in the hall. Besides, all the visitors were allotted time slot also.
The visitors were attracted to see the offering of a local craftsman Chandrakant Patil who created a costly textile machine in Gujarat at half the cost of imported machine.
The good visitation and business enquiries at the event showed that the textile industry is towards an upward trend. “We are hopeful that investment in technical textile and MMF sector will increase. At the same time, garmenting (Western Wear) in Surat is also growing,” says Ashish.
The event, inaugurated by Union Textile minister Smriti Irani, had visitors mainly from leading textile and apparel hubs like Surat, Bhiwandi, Erode, Ichalkaranji and other hubs.