Sri Lanka’s fabric imports from India jump 50%; Chinese supply stable

Indian fabric is gaining ground in the Sri Lankan textile market as imports from India are increasing in the island country compared to Chinese supplies. 

Sri Lanka’s fabric imports from India are witnessing an upward trend as they jumped by more than 50% in four years, but its import from China remained almost stable during the same period.

Sri Lanka’s fabric imports from India increased to $ 565.848 million in 2021 from $ 374.214 million in 2017, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market insight tool TexPro.

The inbound shipment had amounted to $ 426.046 million in 2018 and $ 485.160 million in 2019, before declining to $ 410.881 million in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, it bounced back to $ 565.848 million in 2021. Sri Lanka imported fabric worth $ 556.921 million during January-November 2022. The total imports for 2022 are likely to surpass the shipment of 2021.

Fabric imports from China to Sri Lanka were recorded at $ 888.772 million in 2017 which inched up to $ 897.101 million in 2021. The shipment increased by just 1% in four years. The imports amounted to $ 892.740 million in 2018 and $ 944.202 million in 2019. It came down to $ 720.823 million in 2020 but increased to $ 897.101 million in 2021. 

Sri Lanka’s fabric imports totalled $2 .141 billion in the first 11 months of 2022. China and India were the top suppliers with total contribution of more than 64%. The imports from China grabbed a share of 38.73%, while India’s share was 26.01% of the total. 

(Source: Fibre2Fashion)