Much room for higher Indian apparel exports to Mexico: Envoy

New Delhi [India], February 17 (ANI): The bilateral trade between India and Mexico is rising and there is huge potential for growth of Indian apparel exports to Mexico, said country's ambassador to Mexico Manpreet Vohra.
Speaking at 'India-Mexico Synergies in Apparel and Textiles' virtual meeting, organised by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and Embassy of India, Mexico City, Mexico, on Tuesday evening, Vohra said the bilateral trade has grown 46 per cent to about USD 10 billion since 2014.
"Mexico is now India's largest trading partner in Latin America and the second-largest in entire America after the USA and having overtaken Canada and Brazil. Our trade is also fairly well balanced with only about USD 1 billion in India's favour," Vohra said.
The Ambassador said one of the most important products in the bilateral trade basket is garments and textiles, and for which India is among Mexico's top suppliers. In 2019, Mexico imported USD 381 million worth of textiles and clothing items from the country.
"However, there is much more room for growth borne out by the fact that in 2019 Mexico imported over USD 10.7 billion worth of garments and textiles from all over the world. Even 2020 data shows from January to November that despite the pandemic Mexico has still imported USD 7.9 billion of these items. India, therefore, can surely increase its share in the import matrix of Mexico," the envoy said.
India is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of high quality and competitively priced garments and textiles, he said and added that the size of the country's domestic market alone is USD 100 billion.
"Both the domestic market size and India's share in global apparel trade, currently 5 per cent, are likely to triple by 2024-25," he added.
AEPC Chairman A Sakthivel said, "At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in India in March, the production of medical textiles in the country was zero. Within 30 days with the help of Minister of Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani and our exporters, the production of medical textiles began. And, by June India became the world's second-largest manufacturer of medical textiles."
Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman (Export Promotion), AEPC, said, "Of the 10 top apparel products that are being exported from India to Mexico only one item is a MMF fabric, all other items are cotton fabrics. This is where the gap is and where we see growth." (ANI)