Cheap imitations of Woolmark, pashmina hit shawl industry

Vijay C Roy

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 15

The growing cheap imitations of pure wool and pashmina shawls is giving sleepless nights to manufacturers in Punjab. They have requested the Centre to make labeling on shawls mandatory. It will have detailed information, particularly the composition of the fabric, as is done in the case of medicines and food items.

According to manufacturers, shawls made of viscose by unscrupulous manufacturers have labels of ‘pashmina’ tagged to it. There is a huge price difference between the two yarns and customers are fleeced in the garb of original pashmina.  “Due to non-labeling or wrong labeling, customers are misled. The cost of the shawl depends on the yarn used. The price of pure wool product and that of viscose differs manifold. But the consumer is fooled by the retailer by pronouncing wool for viscose and silk for polyster,” said Shawl Club (India) chairperson and Shingora Textiles’ MD Mridula Jain.

The price of pashmina yarn starts from Rs 10,000 per kg while blended yarn or viscose is priced between Rs 150 and Rs 300 per kg. “Almost 50% of the products are blended with other fabrics,” Mridula said.   

“Unless the content of the yarn is written on the shawls, the customers will not be able to judge it simply by seeing or touching it. The manufacturers and retailers are minting money by not declaring or wrong declaring the content of the yarn used in the product,” she added.

This malpractice is hitting the genuine manufacturers and buyers. “There are less than 40 Woolmark licensees (Woolmark stands for 100% pure wool) in Punjab. But those who don’t have a licence are also using Woolmark logo and this is adversely affecting the industry,” said Apollo Shawls’ proprietor Piara Lal Seth. 

In Punjab, the shawl industry is restricted to Ludhiana and Amritsar. Around 1,000 units are engaged in the manufacturing of shawls. The total  industry size is between Rs 9,000 crore and Rs 10,000 crore, including exports, which was to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore from Punjab last year. Apart from Amritsar and Ludhiana, shawls are exported from Kullu and Srinagar too.

Highlighting the plight of the industry, the Shawl Club (India) has also written a letter to Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani.

The Shawl Club has requested the textile and consumer affairs ministry to draw a comprehensive regulation to enforce labeling of textiles and textile products to protect the consumers’ interest. 

The manufacturers said these regulations should be implemented strictly and periodic testing should be carried out to check the correct labeling. 

Yarn prices

• Pashmina wool : Starts from Rs 10,000 per kg
• Pure wool: Starts from Rs 1,000 per kg
• Blended wool: Rs 150 to Rs 300 per kg