The Japanese team, presently on a visit to the knitwear exporting hub of Tirupur, seemed keen to source knitted fabrics and garments from India. But the quality of the Indian garment has been a matter of concern, voiced a member of the visiting team.

The team nevertheless expressed their confidence in the exporting community here.

“Textile imports from India are less than one per cent at present. We would like to source up to 3 per cent of our requirements from India. Imports from China is huge, at over 85 per cent now,” said Yoshiaki Kamiyama, Senior Researcher, Japan Textiles Exporters Association and The Japan Textiles Importers Association.

And this incidentally is not Kamiyama’s maiden visit to this knitwear hub, although it is his first to the India Knit Fair event.

(The 36th edition of the Fair – Spring/ Summer collection 2014 was inaugurated by the District Collector of Tirupur G Govindaraj, at the IKFA complex on Wednesady morning)

“We have always been keen to source from India, but the high rejection rate is a matter of concern for us. It is as high as 40 per cent,” he told Business Line .

Despite this negative sentiment, Kamiyama feels that India would still be able to cater to the Japanese market by improving on the quality front. “We are very quality conscious. If the quality parameters are met and you put a strong supply chain management in place, enhancing our textile imports from India should not be an issue,” he said.

Yukio Moriguchi, Chief Executive and Director at Stylem International (India) Private Ltd said that the team proposed to visit at least half-a-dozen units over the next two days.

The visit, according to him would give the exporting units some impetus to strengthen themselves on the quality front.

Stylem, the Indian subsidiary of Takisada Osaka Co, which is the biggest textile trading company in the Japanese market, brings to the Indian market a variety of textile collections developed and improvised by the parent company every season.

Knitwear exporters, who have been gearing up for the event and pinning hopes on making a dent in the Japanese market, foresee huge business potential.

Published on April 18, 2013