A 3-day expo titled the India Knit Fair (IKF) (Autumn / Winter/ Mid Summer Collection 2011) is scheduled to be held at Tirupur from October 6, 2010. The event, which has been organised by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), the Tirupur Exporters Association and the Indian Knit Fair Association, will witness attendance of manufacturers and foreign buyers, among others.

Speaking to a Bizxchange correspondent, Vimal Kirti Singh, secretary general of AEPC, said, “A large number of apparel-based SMEs from Tamil Nadu, especially from the knitwear clusters of Tirupur, will participate in the event. Small manufacturers and exporters will benefit from the B2B interactions with international buyers at the expo.”

Incidentally, the AEPC recently announced that owing to sluggish demand from the US and European countries, India’s garment exports have dropped by 8% to US$3.46 billion during April-July 2010-11.

“Growth in apparel exports has been slow post-recession and even now exports are just normal. Small players like us have been getting almost the same number of orders since the beginning of 2010,” said Nivas Mittapalli, owner of Unique Corporation, a small unit in Hyderabad which manufactures and exports ladies garments.

Notably, IKF is also expected to provide SMEs the scope to expand their contact base and work towards joint ventures, which can help to uplift the sagging export volume of apparels.