India:Low-end silk sarees pose a threat to industry
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PublishDate:
2007-01-31 16:19:00
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KANCHEEPURAM: The growing demand for low-end silk sarees has put the cooperative silk societies in the district at a cross roads.
At least 80 percent of the turnover in the silk saree segment, to the tune of Rs 300 crore, is gobbled up by the low-end silk saree segment. Lack of affordability of high-end silk sarees, as their prices have almost scaled up 40 percent in recent years, has burgeoned the market for low-cost silk sarees.
As the private sector manufacturers have taken the lead in manufacturing sarees with low gold content, they are able to sell a silk saree at a cost less than almost 50 percent of the original saree.
They say that due to the presence of more copper content in low-cost sarees, the production cost has come down drastically.
Besides, there is large-scale outsourcing of sarees from other silk- producing regions like Salem, Arani, etc. The trend has also encouraged fake sarees being passed off as pure silk sarees.
In fact, the showrooms, which have not yet started selling low-end sarees, consider these sarees to be fake.
Another disturbing trend is that Co-optex has stopped procuring sarees from co-operatives demanding low-end sarees to boost sales. As the cost of pure silks escalated, Co-optex could not sell them.
As showroom managers could not reach sales targets and showroom stocks piled up, Co-optex introduced contractual purchases, a scheme under which the organisation would return the unsold items to the co-operatives. 憫As a result, stocks are piled up at the cooperatives and new orders to weavers have been reduced,拻 complained trade union leaders.
However, when contacted, sources at the Department of Handlooms acknowledged the fact that Cooptex offtake from cooperatives had gone down from Rs 9 crore to Rs 4 crore annually.
With the sanction of 10 percent rebate, the stocks were liquidated to a certain extent. Still, the stock at present is to the tune of Rs 76 crore (8.17 lakh metres), including those produced during the year. The stock at the end of last financial year was Rs 82 crore (10.05 lakh metres), said official sources.
While the decline in Co-optex offtake is surely a shot in the arm for cooperative societies, certain officials in the department have expressed the need to introduce low-cost sarees. But, the Department of Handloom officials said the unique selling proposition (USP) of co-operatives being high-end sarees, their image would go down and it would encourage proliferation of fake sarees in the market.
Besides, the co-operatives would face a procedural hurdle in switching over to the low-end production as the societies have to come under the Geographical Indication Register (GIS), which has been instituted to keep the fake market under check, the officials noted.
At least 80 percent of the turnover in the silk saree segment is gobbled up by the low-end silk saree segment.
Source:Industry Website