Ministry of Textiles - Sericulture Industry.

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Ministry of Textiles


Sericulture Industry

I. INTRODUCTION

Sericulture is a labour-intensive industry in all its phases, namely, cultivation of silkworm food plants, silkworm rearing, silk reeling, and other post-cocoon processes such as twisting, dyeing, weaving, printing and finishing. It provides employment to approximately 68.17 lakhs persons, most of them being small and marginal farmers, or tiny & household industry mainly in the hand reeling and hand weaving sections. Cultivation of sericulture is not very widespread being practiced regularly in contiguous districts in the three southern States of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; in the North Eastern Region(NER); in the tribal areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa; and in Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal. The cocoons and silk processing industry has traditionally existed in clusters in areas not necessarily coinciding with the sericulture areas in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Bihar. Reeling of silk is more widespread, with different clusters/traditionally producing distinctive designs and weavers, mainly in saris.

India has the distinction of cultivating all the four commercially known varieties of silk, namely, Mulberry, Tasar, Eri and Muga.

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Sericulture Industry

II. WORLD RAW SILK PRODUCTION

The World Raw Silk production (Mulberry and Vanya (non-mulberry) about 126995 MT (2009) (Annexure-I) mainly from two countries, China and India. China leads the world with silk production of 104000 MT or 81.89% of the produce. India ranks second in respect of world raw silk production. It is this position, as one of only two major silk producers in the world, and from its employment potential, that sericulture and silk derive their importance in the Indian textile map. Policy decisions are defined mainly by these two considerations.

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Sericulture Industry

III. AREA UNDER CULTIVATION AND DOMESTIC RAW SILK PRODUCTION (DURING 2009-10)

India’s raw silk production is 19690 MT (2009-10), 82.89% (16322 M.T.) of it is mulberry and 17.11% (3368 M.T.) Vanya silks. The area reported by States as cumulatively planted under mulberry is 1.84 lakh hectares (2009-10); and the production of mulberry cocoons is 131661 tonnes. State-wise production of mulberry and non-mulberry silk is given in Annexure II.

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Sericulture Industry

IV. PRODUCTIVITY OF RAW SILK.

As seen from the table below, though, area under sericulture has fallen – mainly because of drought in AP and Karnataka in the first two years of X Plan, as also due to price fluctuations, the productivity per ha. has been steadily improving. The main reasons behind increase in production is improved silkworm races and hybrids, better technologies in rearing and reeling, evolution of higher leaf yielding mulberry varieties.

Production of Mulberry and Vanya (Non-Mulberry)
Unit: Raw Silk in MT
Year	Mulberry Plantation (Hectare)	MULBERRY		Vanya (Non- Mulberry) Raw Silk (V)	Total Raw Silk (M+V)	Per Ha. Productivity of mulberry Year (In Kg.)
Cocoon	Raw Silk(M)	Cocoon	Raw silk
2001-02 (terminal year of IX Plan)	232076	139616	15842	1509	17351	601.60	68.26
X plan
2002-03	194463	128181	14617	1702	16319	659.15	75.16
2003-04	185120	117471	13970	1772	15742	634.57	75.46
2004-05	171959	120027	14620	1880	16500	698.00	85.02
2005-06	179065	126261	15445	1860	17305	705.11	86.25
2006-07	191893	135462	16525	1950	18475	705.92	86.12
Xl plan
2007-08	184928	132038	16245	2075	18320	713.99	87.84
2008-09	177943	124838	15610	2760	18370	701.56	87.73
2009-10	183773	131661	16322	3368	19690	716.43	88.82

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Sericulture Industry

V. BIVOLTINE SILKS:

With Japanese technology and cooperation, CSB has been able to evolve & popularize Bivoltine silkworm races which can yield raw silk of international standards. With these races, provided there are concomitant reforms in the marketing and processing of cocoons, India can hope to expand its sale of domestic raw silk beyond its own borders. The XI Plan target for bivoltine raw silk production has been fixed as 5000 M.T.

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Sericulture Industry

VI. SILK IMPORTS:

(i) Demand Supply Gap: The domestic production of raw silk is not adequate to meet the domestic and export demand. It is estimated that against the demand of around 28,000 ton per annum the domestic production is around 19000 to 19,500 tonnes. The gap of nearly 8000 to 8500 tonnes in demand is mainly on account of the fact that high-grade quality mulberry raw silk is not being produced in the country to the extent required by the industry. This quality of mulberry raw silk is basically required in the power-loom industry, for export purposes, and to some extent in the handloom industry for warp purposes. To meet the demand of exporters, the Govt. has allowed the import of raw silk under O.G.L. as per WTO compatibility.

(ii) Raw Silk Imports: The quantity and value of raw silk imported during the last ten years is indicated as under:

Raw Silk
Year	Quantity (in ton)	Value (` In Crores)
1999-00	5018	412.74
2000-01	4713	475.15
2001-02	6808	624.73
2002-03	9054	647.15
2003-04	9258	628.41
2004-05	7948	607.21
2005-06	8383	779.71
2006-07	5565	673.37
2007-08	7922	734.44
2008-09	8392	903.06
2009-10	7338	933.70
Source: DGCIS, Kolkata

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Sericulture Industry

VII. IMPORT DUTY:

The basic customs duty on imported Raw silk & Silk Fabric from the year 2000-01 to 2009-10 is given below:

Basic customs Duty
Year	Mulberry Raw Silk (5002 00)	Silk Fabric (5007 00)
2000-01	35%	35%
2001-02	35%	35%
2002-03	30%	30%v
2003-04	30%	25%
2004-05	30%	20%
2005-06	30%	15%
2006-07	30%	12.5%
2007-08	30%	10%
2008-09	30%	10%
2009-10	30%	10%

It may be noted that 2002-03 onwards the basic custom duty on raw silk has been kept at 30% level. In case of silk fabric the basic custom duty has been reduced gradually from the level of 30% (2002-03) to 10% (2009-10).

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Sericulture Industry

VIII. ANTI-DUMPING DUTY ON IMPORT OF RAW SILK

The policy towards sericulture has been protectionist till recently. Since 1/4/2001 when the import of raw silk has been put under O.G.L. as per WTO compatibility, the import of silk yarn and fabric showed an increasing trend in comparison to the corresponding period of last year, which resulted in fall in the prices of raw silk in the domestic silk industry during the period 2001 to June, 2003 and disrupted the domestic market.

The Directorate General of Antidumping announced the final determination on 3rd July, 2003 at US$ 27.97 per kg. on all imports of mulberry raw silk (not thrown) of international grade 2A and below, originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China. This has helped to stabilize domestic prices.

In order to curb the continued dumping of raw silk & to support the domestic silk reeling industry CSB along with various Silk reelers Associations has gone for sunset Review & requested Directorate general of Antidumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) for extension of the antidumping duty for another term of five years. Considering the merit of the case DGAD has again imposed enhanced antidumping duty indicating a reference price of US$ 37.32/kg on Mulberry raw silk of 2A Grade & below w.e.f. January 2009 and the duty so imposed is in force till January 2014.

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Sericulture Industry

IX. A ANTI-DUMPING PETTION REGARDING IMPORT OF SILK FABRIC FROM CHINA

Various Weavers Association’s in association with CSB have filed a petition before the Directorate General of Antidumping and Allied duties (DGAD, MOC) alleging dumping of silk fabrics by China.

At this juncture, CSB in association with the various silk Power Loom Weavers Associations situated in Karnataka, Gujarat & Uttar Pradesh have filed a case on 29th September 2004, against the dumping of cheap Chinese silk fabric with the Director General of Antidumping & Allied Duties (DGAD), Ministry of Commerce (GOI). Considering merit of the case & upholding the claims of domestic industry the DGAD has imposed antidumping duty on Chinese Silk Fabric during November 2006 on fabric weight ranging from 20 - 100 gm/meter indicating a reference price ranging between US$ 1.66 - 4.55 /meter. The antidumping duty imposed will be for five years & is in force till April 2011. As a result of imposition of antidumping duty on Silk Fabric the silk weaving units which were closed have started functioning again.

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Sericulture Industry

X. EXPORTS

The export earnings from the silk are growing steadily because of increasing demand for Indian Silk goods particularly from small markets of Asia Region in addition to the traditional major markets like USA and European countries. Exports earnings which was `2,294.05 crores during the year 2002-03 has increased to `3,338.35 crores during the year 2006-07, showing an increase of around 46%. Due to melt down in the global economy, sharp appreciation in the rupee vis-à-vis US$ witnessed in the year 2007-08, there was a slump in silk goods exports of about 18.3% (`2,727.87 crores) during the year 2007-08 compared to 2006-07. However, in the year 2008-09 & 2009-10, the data shows an increase of about 16.5% (`3,178.19 crores) & 6.0 % (`2892.44 crores) respectively in the silk goods export earnings when compared to the same period of 2007-08.

The exports of silk goods during the last ten years is indicated as under:
Year	(Figure in Crore)*	Million US $
1999-00	1755.55	404.97
2000-01	2421.98	530.21
2001-02	2359.56	495.29
2002-03	2294.05	474.08
2003-04	2779.19	604.70
2004-05	2879.56	640.90
2005-06	3194.20	721.53
2006-07	3338.35	737.76
2007-08	2727.87	677.40
2008-09	3178.19	691.06
2009-10	2892.44	609.58
*Including silk carpets and silk RMG, Source: DGCIS, Kolkata