The Tirupur Exporters’ Association, with the support of Indian Embassy in Tokyo, Japanese government and various trade bodies in Japan and India, would be organising a three-day India Trend Fair in Tokyo from October 27, in an attempt to promote the Indian textile products.

The knitwear exports from India continue to be low with a market share in knitwear imports in Japan standing at a mere 0.3 percent of the total knitwear products imported by Japan in 2014 and the share in the case of woven garment at 1.45 percent despite enjoying duty free access to Japan.

While, Chinese textile exporters though did not enjoy the duty free access in Japan, unlike their Indian counterparts, almost 80 percent of the total range of textile products imported into Japan were from China.

According to Prashant Godghate, secretary-general of Tokyo-based Japan India Industry Promotion Association (JIIPA), unless the Indian knitwear exporters improve product quality and display better adherence to delivery schedules, they will not be able to make inroads into the Japanese market. Likewise, they also need to come out with innovative designs that suit the taste of Japanese.

Mr. Godghate said that JIIPA, along with Tirupur Exporters’ Association, had held a road show here already to attract knitwear exporters to the event.

They are also trying to rope in textile exporters from clusters like Panipat, Karur, Jaipur, Mumbai and Delhi for the event with briefing given to them on the fashion trends and tastes of Japanese.