Members of the Karnataka Innerwear Association say that they witnessed a 25-30% slide in the sector during the pandemic as the cotton yarn cost doubled in this period, up from Rs 250-Rs 350 per kg to Rs 400-Rs 700.
Moreover, the WFH scenario meant that professionals traded their office wear for jammies and bought only bare essentials to get through the pandemic. Trade volumes went astray as many people moved from big cities to their hometowns.
They bought their innerwear in their villages and hometowns. Hence, the price of cotton affected the manufacturers’ profits, said Ramesh Chand Jain, President of the association.
However, there was no impact on the multinational brands although they too had to navigate through extreme shortages in raw material. Sales picked up in loungewear and comfy wear at Van Heusen, and the brand saw a big demand for boxers after the markets opened after the first lockdown.
The brand tough, faced the problem of supply of cotton and finished products.
For Amante too, operations were affected due to the pandemic, but revenue and demand rose. However, local and smaller manufacturers were majorly hit due to lack of capital and manpower during the pandemic.
Things were looking from April this year though, since the central government had waived off import duty on cotton yarn, said the Karnataka Innerwear Association.
The association represents 85% distributors from across the state. Jain said that cotton yarn prices had dropped for the first time in two years.
As countries across the world have decided to reduce their dependence for raw materials on China, Indian cotton farmers have been catering to huge volumes of export orders from Europe and North America.
Jain further stated that although the production of cotton is high in the country, domestic demand is not met as export orders have surged and manufacturers are importing cotton yarn to meet their requirements
