When the production of raw silk in China precipitously fell by 67% between 2017 and 2021, India was well poised to take over as the top global exporter of raw silk. Only, that didn’t happen.
The fortuitous advantage has seen been squandered away, with the country’s silk industry being held back not just by lethargy, but also by a lack of pro-active measures to wrest the initiative.
Today, China and India together account for about 95% of the global silk production of 86,311 metric tonnes (MT), even though silk is produced in about 60 countries around the world. China’s production has dipped from 142,000 MT in 2017 to 46,700 MT in 2021, and India’s global share in 2021 was 36,543 MT.
The global rat race aside, silk itself is of immense significance to the Indian economy. All four commercially known varieties of silk—mulberry, muga, eri and tasar—are produced in the country, with mulberry silk accounting for about 74% of the total production. Besides, the sericulture industry provides employment to 9.2 million persons in rural and semi-urban areas.
But India has failed to capitalise on its infrastructure.
The 54th report of the Parliament of India’s Standing Committee on Labour, Textiles and Skill Development, which was submitted earlier this month, provides alarming numbers.
During 2023–24, the target fixed for Chhattisgarh state was 664 MT but till July 2023 only a measly 1 MT had been produced there. Similarly, 4 MT were produced in Madhya Pradesh against the target 85 MT; 28 MT produced in Uttar Pradesh against 470 MT; 3,047 MT in Andhra Pradesh against 10,009 MT; and 3,834 MT in Karnataka against 13,000 MT.
The Ministry of Textiles has attributed the low production to the “adverse climatic conditions which led to the decline in the production of one of the varieties of silk, i.e. tasar.” The Committee did not buy the argument. It failed to fathom why if only the production of tasar silk had suffered, the other states where the production of mulberry, eri and muga is carried out too were showing a declining trend. The Committee has advised the ministry to ascertain the reason for this extremely low production and come up with a corrective action plan to arrest the slump in the production of silk.
If the sluggish production numbers are not a big cause of concern, then there’s a bigger set of ominous clouds looming over the horizon: India’s imports are rising.
Raw silk remains a major item of import, which accounts for 70% of the total value of the silk imports. According to the ministry, imports had been declining till 2021–22, which ranged from ₹10,413.5 million in 2018–19; ₹11,493.2 million in 2019–20; ₹5,705.6 million in 2020–21. Then it increased to ₹8,196.8 million in 2021–22, and almost doubled to ₹17,136.8 million in 2022–23.
The textiles ministry believes this surge is due to the increase in demand for silk products in the domestic market due to the increased economic activity after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in domestic silk production from 34,903 MT in 2021–22 to 36,453 MT in 2022–23 is not able to cater to the rise in the industry requirement. Therefore, in terms of volume, the import of raw silk almost doubled from 1,978 MT in 2021–22 to 3,874 MT in 2022–23.
The Committee has urged the ministry of textiles to explore more ways to increase the productivity of all the four varieties of silk in India. “More research is needed to obtain increased productivity by crossing or hybridisation to get superior seeds, i.e. mulberry seeds as well as silkworm hybrids and improvised sericulture development techniques with high productivity.” The panel also sought quality control on raw silk imports.
