01 November2022, Mumbai:
This Diwali season was an utter failure for the textile industry in Surat.
Compared to the previous season, aggregate business was down by almost 40 percent. Though the marriage season will start in the second week of November, very few orders are coming. Over 300 textile markets have been closed since October 25 and will open only from the second week of November.
Struggling to get fresh orders amid sluggish demand, textile units in Surat, India’s biggest manmade fabric (MMF) manufacturing hub, have asked their daily wage workers to take unpaid extended Diwali vacation till mid-November.
Conventionally, Surat textile units keep their activities shut for three to five days after Diwali every year, with Gujarati New Year closely following the festival of lights.
This year, however, these units, especially weavers, processors, and embroidery manufacturers, have decided to shut activities for a longer period of time. The situation of weaving units is even more dire as out of nearly a million power looms, hardly a lakh have started operations and the rest will remain closed.
This is the first time in the history of Surat’s textile industry that weaving units have remained closed for a fortnight due to extremely low demand.
