Hand-made Pashmina and Jamawar shawls from India have for ages been a westener's delight.
While export of shawls from India continues to rise, the country faces stiff competition from machine-made Chinese and Bangladeshi products, which are available at very low price.
"India faces stiff competition from China, Turkey and Bangladesh who account for 35 per cent of the total shawl exports in the world. They are large volume exporters of low cost embroidered, knitted and crocheted goods," said Rakesh Kumar, executive director, Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts.
Though China and Turkey achieved volume due to increasing usage of machinery, the success of Bangladesh in volumes is because of abundant labour and raw material. The country has also given lot of prominence to textile and clothing industry, said Kumar.
"It is the volumes which count these days and not everywhere that a hand-made Pashmina or Jamawar is in demand. Pashmina or the ring shawl from India is popular mainly in the west coast in USA or among the affluent in Europe. In other countries, it is mainly the polysilk, cotton or embroidered which is more in demand," said N D Saifi, an exporter.
According to EPCH, countries operating in the higher price segment include France, Canada, Spain and Belgium, whereas South Africa, Hong Kong, Germany and India operate in the mid segment. Pakistan, the Philippines and the Netherlands are in the lower price segment.
The US is one of the biggest importers of shawls, accounting for a market share of 27.2 per cent. But its market is dominated by China and Italy. India stands after United Kingdom at number four with just over 11 per cent share in the American market, the council said in a report.
It said the Chinese dominance can be attributed to the fact that exporters from that country reduced their prices by nearly 41 per cent in 2004.
However, Saifi says new markets of Spain, Ireland, Italy and France are fast opening up for Indian exporters and our hand embroidery, especially in cotton is becoming very popular.
Kumar explains that embroidered, knitted and crocheted shawls are clubbed as artware. Their exports during 2005-06 was Rs 110.23 crore (Rs 1.1 billion) up from Rs 53.65 crore (Rs 536.5 million) during 2004-05.
The artware are exported mainly from Ludhiana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Manipur, Kashmir and Himachal. Embroidered shawls of Kashmir, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Punjab are in demand in Saudi Arabia, USA, Japan, UK, Canada, Singapore and Oman, he said.