Union minister of textiles K S Rao inaugurated the 4th edition of the textiles fair 'Tex-Trends India–2014', one of Asia's largest textile shows. Maximum buyers from United States have registered for participating in 'Tex Trends India 2014', featuring over 380 exhibitors and displaying diverse range of products from the entire length and breadth of the country. More than 3,260 global buyers and 440 buying agents have registered for the fair so far.

The latest edition of 'Tex-Trends India' will show-case the emerging trends in a range of products, including apparel, fashion jewellery, accessories, home furnishing, yarns, threads and fabrics, silk, synthetic, rayon and cotton textiles and jute garments, among other things. Nearly 400 reputed export houses of India will be a part of this grand exhibition.

All the 11 councils, including the National Jute Board, under the ministry of textiles, participated in the Tex Trends. The show will also have theme area made by TEXPROCIL, NJB, AEPC, NITRA, ITRA, BTRA, SASMIRA,MANTRA, Textiles Committee and EPCH to showcase uniqueness and strengths of India's textiles industry. There will also be fashion shows every day where latest designs and collections will be showcased.

Tex Tends is an initiative by the Ministry of Textiles, with financial assistance under the Market Access Initiative (MAI) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), as the lead agency, has organised the exibition along with other Textile Export Promotion Councils.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Rao said garment exports had been growing at the rate of 15 per cent in the last nine months, touching $ 10.555 billion.

The 4th Tex Trends India is expected to do brisk business. He urged AEPC to target more buyers from the countries where markets have not been tapped so far. He also appealed to all exhibitors to innovate and bring more new styles in garments so that the interests of buyers remain with us.

EU is the top most RMG export destination of India with $2.8 billion, followed by the US where exports from India were to the tune of $1.64 billion. West Asia is the third largest regional apparel export destination of India with $1.27 billion while exports to Africa were to the tune of $311.3 million.

The textile minister, however, raised concerns over the macroeconomic risks facing the Indian economy, which have increased during the last six months, mainly on the dimensions of sliding domestic growth, rising input cost and slowdown in manufacturing and employment generation.

The apparel sector alone engages around 11.2 million workers and contributes almost 50 per cent of the entire textiles exports from the country. The textile industry has the latent potential to absorb more people and therefore this sector needs increased focusing.

Tex-Trends India–2014', one of Asia's largest textile show is spread over a vast area of around 7,000 square meters at the Pragati Maidan (ITPO).