Surat’s textile industry, India’s biggest man-made fabric industry wants action against the imports of cheap Chinese fabrics.

Textile manufacturers in Surat say the industry is running at 50 per cent capacity and that over 2.5 lakh workers are jobless and over four lakh power loom machines are idle and all this due to under-invoicing of fabrics imported from China.

The textile industry in Surat is mainly engaged in the activities of yarn production, weaving, processing as well as embroidery. Surat is mainly engaged in the production and trading of synthetic textile products.

Nearly 30 million meters of raw fabric and 25 million meters of processed fabric are produced in Surat daily. The city has several textile markets that have existed since time immemorial. People from various other places like Rajasthan and Kolkata have settled in Surat in order to carry out their textile business.

Around 90 per cent of the polyester used in India comes from Surat. The Middle East is the major export market for Surat’s textile products.

The Surat textile industry’s turnover is pegged at roughly Rs 90,000 crores, of which Rs 40,000 crores comes from finished goods such as dress materials and fabrics for apparel and saris while the rest is distributed into other verticals such as spinning, weaving, processing and fabric sales.