Surat International Textile Expo (SITEX) will be held from tomorrow February 25 to 27, 2017. The aim is to encourage and develop the textile sector in Surat and the south Gujarat region. Around 175 exhibitors from across the country including Ludhiana, Punjab, Maharashtra etc. are participating. But around 80 per cent of textile machinery manufacturers participating in SITEX are from Surat.

Surat’s manmade fabric industry contributes around 40 per cent of the synthetic fabric demand. The exhibition aims to encourage power loom owners to upgrade their machines in order to match international standards and to provide an opportunity to weavers to upgrade their units. The focus is to introduce state-of-the-art textile machinery for the Surat cluster and present Surat as a brand.

The event will have a series of seminars, fashion shows and buyer-seller meets. It’s organized by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The focus will be on the weaving sector and the introduction of circular knitting machines used by Tirupur, India’s largest garmenting center.

Surat’s contribution to the export of manmade fabrics and garments is negligible. On the other hand, Tirupur, having just 20,000 circular knitting machines, exports fabrics and garment worth Rs 25,000 crores a year.