The India International Garment Fair (IIGF), visited by 800 overseas buyers and 300 buying agents, has generated business worth over 78 million dollars, against 32.4 million dollars in the last fair, during its three-day exposition.

The 36th edition of the IIGF witnessed more than 340 exhibitors showcasing the best of their products in the Fair compared to 244 participants in the last fair.

''The 36th IIGF has yielded results beyond our expectations and has turned out to be better than the fair at Hong Kong,'' according to Mr Pritam Goel, Chairman, International Garment Fair Association.

With over 800 buyers and over 300 buying agents at the IIGF displaying Autumn/Winter 2006 collections, ''it is evident that there was a lot of interest amongst worldwide exporters in sourcing Indian textiles and apparels,'' he added.

The major buyers who showed interest in conducting business in India include Max Mara and Morgane from Italy, HOBO Silk and Lotus creations from United States, Rockford Trading Co Ltd. and Tessa Maynard from the United Kingdom, Marcel BAUER from France.

Large delegations from Italy, France, Australia, Spain, U.K, Turkey, Syria, U.S.A, Hong Kong, visited the fair.

Mr Vijay Agarwal, Chairman of Apparel Export Promotion Council, (AEPC), said ''As opportunities have grown post-quota, the importance of IIGF as an catalyst for growth has got highlighted this year. The apparel export industry has the potential to become one of the greatest growth drivers of the future.''

While the Fair positioned itself as one of the largest fashion extravaganzas in the previous years, it is increasingly being looked upon as a serious forum, which generates business worth millions of dollars. It provides a direct marketing platform to the small, medium, medium-large merchant and manufacturer groups.

The ''DHL McKinsey Apparel and Textile Report'', has projected that the value of the global textile and apparel industry is likely to go up to 248 billion dollars by 2008 with China, India and Pakistan expected to be the ''Clear Winners''. The report forecasts that India has the potential to increase her share from the current 4 per cent to 6.5 per cent valued at 16 billion dollars by 2008.

It projects that the 5 million workers in the apparel industry today will double by 2010 and India would be exporting more than 150 crore pieces a year. It also projects a shift from cotton to non-cotton exports from India.

(http://news.webindia123.com)