The biggest worry for home textiles exporters in Karur is cancellation of orders and the prevailing uncertainty, say industry insiders.

Stating that order cancellation was affecting a good number of exporters in a big way, a source said: “At this juncture, we are not sure if the orders have been diverted to China or if the importers are sourcing their requirements from Bangladesh. Either way, it is a huge hit for us.”

Production issues

With order cancellation on one side and calls from agents on the other — seeking confirmation on timeline for shipments — the production manager of a home textiles company, preferring anonymity, said: “Things are very uncertain at this juncture. We depend on Erode for fabric processing; now with Erode being categorised as a red zone, we are not sure when it will open up. How do we confirm the timeline as the product specifications differ from one buyer to another?”

“If an order is cancelled, we cannot send the stuff to another importer who is in need of the product range, because of the specification issue,” the source said.

A cross-section of entrepreneurs that BusinessLine spoke to said that the goods were in different stages of production at the time of announcement of lockdown 1.0. “It is three weeks now and we have not commenced completion operations as some orders have been cancelled, and we understand that some buyers have gone bankrupt. It’s proving to be a testing time for buyers and sellers,” said an exporter.

Exporters, however, point out that movement of containers to the port was never an issue, except for tiny players.

“The uncertainty is killing us,” they said.

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