The 63rd edition of India International Garment Fair (IIGF), India’s biggest sourcing fair, concluded on 6 July (Saturday) at Greater Noida.
The 3-day-long event, extended over an area of 13,824 square metres, focused on Spring/Summer 2020 and around 350 garment exporters across India participated in the event. As far as buyer visitation was concerned, most of the participants shared that they mainly met their existing buyers while few new buyers were the only added advantage.

Kasual Fashion, Jaipur, dedicated to ladies garments, presented its latest collections and the company was able to meet 3 new buyers at the event. However, Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) was the biggest challenge for them. More on the same, Abha and Sanjay, Partners of the company told, “We are used to doing MOQ of 1,000 pieces but the new buyers we met at this event, asked for 50 to 60 pieces which is like sampling for us. We will certainly like to start work with these new buyers but we have to increase our price as it is not possible to cater to such small orders in regular costing.” The price for the company’s products starts from US $ 3.5 to US $ 4.
Viren Surana, Business Development, Sabnam Exports, Mumbai too had a similar experience as the company met some new buyers who asked for small orders. The company has highlighted tie and dye in its collection and has also added schiffli embroidery in its collection.

Many exporters shared with Apparel Resources that apart from some of their regular buyers they could meet only 2-3 new buyers, which is not enough as it takes time to start business with these buyers and moreover all of them want to start with small orders. Ashish Garg, Director, AG Fashion, Jaipur, said “There is no other such fair in India so we don’t have any option and have to participate in IIGF,” AG Fashion is doubling its production capacity and is becoming more organised.

IIGF is a well-established fair dedicated to womenswear as the majority of its participants specialise in the same; accordingly most of the buyers visit the event looking for womenswear. It creates a limitation for the companies offering mainly menswear, kidswear or niche products. Luvh Attire, Kolkata showcasing the best of kidswear collections participated for the second time in the event. Its director CA Harsh Bang had last time written to the organisers to focus more on kidswear; however nothing happened. It is pertinent to mention here that this time too only around 10 per cent of the participants were dedicated to menswear and kidswear.

As far as niche products are concerned, Kariwala Industries, Kolkata was the company that attracted the attention as it was the only company in the show, offering workwear and industrial clothing. The company also met two new buyers here. Anand Sureka, GM (Merchandising & SCM) of the company told, “I can’t say as of now that meeting 3 new buyers serves the purpose or not. But I must say that the organisers should always retain the same venue. In last few years, we have seen IIGF in Ahmedabad, Delhi and Greater Noida. It confuses the visiting buyers.”

There was RK Handlooms/Sumangalam Enterprises, a company dedicated to crochet garment and known for displaying crochet garment only and that too purely handmade. Mohit Khandelwal of the company, is of the view, “Crochet is our strength and buyers come to us for this specialisation. We have developed a niche in this category and are getting a good response from overseas buyers despite the fact that both direct export and garmenting are comparatively new for us.” The 35-year-old company is also strong into home furnishing.
The 64th edition of the IIGF is scheduled to take place from 20 to 22 January at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, which is favourite venue for its exhibitors as well as visiting buyers and buying agents.
Exporters continuously moving to domestic market
As the export market is not doing well, more and more exporters are targeting the domestic market. Kasual Fashion, Jaipur entered the domestic market around 8 months back while Sabnam Exports, previously an exporter only, has now entered the domestic market and has started working with some e-commerce companies and stores.