At the India Handicraft & Gift Fair (IHGF), organized by the Export Promotion Council for Handicraft (EPCH) in Greater Noida from February 20 to 23, India saw a good number of overseas as well as domestic buyers of home furnishing products.
Almost 2,750 manufacturers/exporters of various soft and hard goods displayed their products in the event, and most of them were satisfied with the buyers’ response as well as with the enquiries generated through the event.
Most of the few home furnishing exporters that Apparel Resources spoke to at the fair to discuss their collections, gave mixed opinions about the upcoming seasons, especially about order flow from Europe.
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Jaipur-based Arvind Exim, which participated in this fair after a decade, is satisfied with the response of the visitors. Baldev Rathi, Director of the company told Apparel Resources, “We have just launched upholstery furniture, so decided to participate in the event after a long gap. Visitors liked our products, and we are happy with the event. Here buyers from USA were also present in good numbers.”
The company, offering a wide range of home textile products, insisted on Jaipur culture in its collection. Harish Rathi of Ramdev Handicrafts, Jaipur and Vinod Mishra of JC International, Noida and many more exporters of home furnishing soft goods were also of a similar opinion, as far as buyers are concerned. The participants/exporters were also of the opinion that European buyers are still not as enthusiastic as they used to be.
Tejinder Singh Sodhi, Chairman, Suprint Textiles, Jaipur, a regular participant at this fair and a veteran of the Jaipur industry, had a different opinion about the market. “Be it any market, it is not that people have stopped using various products or are demanding any less. Our exporters are unable to offer anything new that they would like, and are hence not willing to buy,” Sodhi said. Suprint Textiles is working for top national and other international brands and is into garmenting as well.
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