Tamil Nadu: Tirupur in trouble? What is stopping this Rs 70,000 crore textile cluster from growing?
By yash chouhan 2025-06-25 11:30:14
Tirupur’s Textile Boom Hits a Roadblock
Tirupur, located on the banks of the Noyyal river in western Tamil Nadu, may seem like a quiet, anonymous town at first glance. However, its unassuming appearance belies its status as a giant in global textiles. But the numbers say it all. The textile cluster clocked a whopping Rs 70,000 crore in total trade in FY25. In fact, Tirupur accounts for 90% of India’s cotton knitwear exports and 54% of total woven garments exports, earning it the distinction of ‘Knitwear Capital of India’. Not just in the last fiscal, but for the last several years, Tirupur has been consistently contributing more than half of India’s total knitwear exports. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, it achieved record exports of Rs 39,618 crore in knitwear products in FY25, up from Rs 33,045 crore in FY24 and Rs 27,280 crore in FY20 (see chart).
Despite the remarkable growth over the past few years, Tiruppur continues to face significant challenges. Until recently, exports in Tiruppur had become highly uncompetitive due to lack of a level playing field with countries such as Bangladesh, which benefits from duty-free access in textiles as a least developed country (LDC). Although recent political instability in Bangladesh and the China+1 strategy presented growth opportunities, with global clothing brands shifting their focus to India, it was short-lived.
In-depth interactions with various industry players during ET Digital's recent visit to Tiruppur reveal that addressing issues of skilled labour availability, improving infrastructure and investing in technology upgradation are key to Tiruppur's future prospects.
Creating an ecosystem
The initial exports (direct) from Tiruppur started from Italy. Verona, an Italian textile importer, came to the city in 1978 to buy white T-shirts through Mumbai-based exporters. At that time, a lot of workers were engaged in making garments for merchant exporters. According to the Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA), seeing the potential, Verona brought the European business to Tiruppur. Three years later, European retail chain C&A entered the market, followed by other stores who approached exporters for supply of garments. Eventually, exports from Tiruppur started in the 1980s with 15 export units. In 1985, the city exported garments worth Rs 15 crore.
“In the past, we did not have dyeing technology, and we needed water; neither did we know the technology to convert grey cloth to colour,” recalls Kumar Duraiswamy, joint secretary, TEA. “These were all developed by our own R&D.”
Initially, Tirupur produced only white cloth. As buyers wanted more colours, they imported colours from Ahmedabad and northern parts of the country. “We initially dyed it in iron drums, later upgraded it and later shifted to steel tanks. Then machines from Europe, the US, Taiwan and Japan replaced this steel tank,” he says.
The next few years were unexpectedly successful, with exports from the cluster reaching Rs 300 crore in 1990. In FY25, the number rose to a record Rs 40,000 crore, while domestic consumption rose to Rs 30,000 crore.
