Cotton and alpaca drive textile exports

2018 was a good year for Peruvian textile exports. Driven by shipments of cotton products, such as T-shirts, cardigans and shirts, as well as alpaca yarn, foreign sales totaled $1.4 billion, up 10% from the previous year. This was reported by PROMPERÚ Export Director, Luis Torres, at the Peru Moda and Peru Moda Deco trade show and round table, which was held in April.

Cotton T-shirts were the products that led the shipments, recording sales of US$ 324 million, followed by cotton shirts and cardigans with US$ 150 million and US$ 65 million, respectively. Alpaca yarn achieved sales of US$ 33 million.

"Peruvian exports have performed well over the past three years as a result of the development of a public-private promotion strategy," Torres said.

The largest market for Peruvian textiles is the United States, with exports of US$ 679 million, followed by Brazil and Chile with US$ 70 million and US$ 64 million, respectively, in addition to 110 other destinations.

Textile exports are also expected to continue to increase this year. "In 2019, we believe that these exports will exceed between 8 and 7%, hopefully more. The idea is to develop a much more intense promotional program in terms of presentations in the Peru Moda format in Asia and Europe, and more specialized missions in Latin America," Torres said.

Peru Moda

Peru Moda is one of PROMPERÚ’s top initiatives. It is an exhibition platform that has managed to help Peruvian brands enter foreign markets, generating interest among international buyers to reach producers, which are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the 2019 event, 20% of the 241 Peruvian exhibitors participated for the first time, and 60% of the 373 foreign buyers also attended the event for the first time.

Torres stated that new product categories have been introduced for "children's clothing, pajamas, shirts and household items, with which we have very powerful advantages, and we have also developed lines for children, teenagers and adults."

"This is the big challenge facing the industry which, building on the foundations of cotton and alpaca, is adding new mixtures of fibers, introducing more technology and returning a value proposition" to the market, he noted.

Source: EFE