There is political and economic turmoil in India’s neighboring country Sri Lanka these days. The economic condition of Sri Lanka is such that ordinary citizens are desperate for electricity, petrol and diesel have become so expensive that its effect is being seen on industrial production and transportation. The devaluation of the Sri Lankan rupee is such that people are finding it difficult to buy the necessities of life. Due to all these reasons, the economic condition of Sri Lanka has become like a disaster. The local industries there have started to weaken. It has also adversely affected the goods exported from Sri Lanka.
In the midst of these circumstances, as far as India is concerned, there have been two effects. The business of garments and tea, which is exported in large numbers from Sri Lanka, is now shifting to India. On the other hand, India’s biggest textile market, Surat, used to export crores of cloth to Sri Lanka every month, it has now stopped.
According to Surat market experts, more than 200 million cloths were exported from Surat to Sri Lanka every month. This goods used to reach Sri Lanka directly from Surat and also through the local mandis of South India. Due to the changing economic conditions of Sri Lanka, where new orders have almost stopped getting, while the payment of goods shipped in the past to Surat merchants has also stopped. Experts estimate that Surat’s textile traders owe around ₹50 crore to the local textile traders of Sri Lanka. Traders are apprehensive that it is difficult to say when this due amount will be returned. Let us tell you that a large number of sarees were exported from Surat to Sri Lanka.
Contrary to the loss caused to the Surat textile market by the prevailing economic conditions of Sri Lanka, there is a section in the market that has also benefited. Yes, a large quantity of garments and tea were exported from Sri Lanka to countries all over the world. But now traders importing from Sri Lanka have turned to India for garments and tea.
According to media reports, export orders of garments dealers of Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu have increased. At the same time, after South India, the business of tea exporters of Assam is also increasing. Tiruppur Exporters Association President Raja Shanmugam has told the media that production activities in Sri Lanka have come to a standstill. Notably, the world’s biggest apparel-approval brands have stopped their imports from Sri Lanka and have diverted all their orders to local garment manufacturing units in Tiruppur, Tamil Nadu.
According to the information, global brands Zara, Mango, HNM etc. used to order goods in large numbers from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. There are a lot of orders pending these days in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. In such a situation, these brands have turned to garment hubs in India to meet their Sri Lankan affected supplies. However, Indian traders are also looking troubled by high cost of yarn and cotton.
Let us tell you that Sri Lanka used to export garments worth $ 5.42 billion in a year. After the same garment, he also had a big business of exporting tea. Now this tea business is also seen shifting to the southern states of India and Assam. Most of the tea-producing units in Sri Lanka suffer power cuts of 12 to 15 hours a day. Businessmen are unable to even run their generators due to the fuel supply being affected. Due to this, the production of tea has been badly affected there. Tea was exported in large numbers from Sri Lanka to Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia. This export business is also now shifting to Indian tea entrepreneurs.