Hundreds of shops line-up the Paharganj market (Main Road, Raj Guru Road and surrounding areas) in Delhi with abundant garment samples hanging on the walls; in the first instance one would mistake them for retail shops but in fact they are exporters, exporting mainly ladies garments and accessories. The exporters sitting at their shops expect footfall of small overseas buyers which is now decreasing day-by-day with the changing global trade scenario. Currently, this market is very slow due to recessionary trends in international market; however those having old clientage are still running business with them, though getting new buyers is difficult as now very few floating buyers come to this market.
“Buyers are trying to save whatever they can, so now they don’t come as frequently as they used to in previous years. Many buyers who visit IIGF do come to this market to explore rates as this market offers best/reasonable prices. Heaving less overhead is one of the reasons that we are able to keep our prices comparatively low to other exporters,” says Mayank Miglani , who is handling Achin Exports/Mayank Creation from the last 4 years and exporting garments mainly to Europe and Australia. The business was established by his father Sunil Miglani more than 20 years ago. This low-price and average quality product offering, which is in fact the strength of this market, is also giving a negative image, as it is a common perception that this market doesn’t offer quality products or the buyers who are buying from here are not concerned for quality. Local exporters deny this perception and as one of the exporters says it’s about ‘value for money’, buyers get what they want at how much they want to pay for that. “We are giving long skirts for US $ 2, the fabric used for such products are made by sarees; we do have same skirts in US $ 3 or even US $ 4 with different fabric and better quality stitching. All depends on our buyers, what they want,” said one of the local exporters who did not want to be quoted.
Few exporters sitting in Paharganj are of the opinion that new buyers must visit this market not just for sourcing, but for fun and uniqueness of the experience, and to explore local things. “Nearby available local food which is famous across the world is enjoyed immensely by overseas visitors, especially those who are coming for the first time,” says Ashish Bhatia of KL Bhatia , running his business in the area for more than 4 decades. Along with handicraft items, the firm deals in accessories like stoles and shawls.
Earlier most of the players of Paharganj used to have huge stocks with them but with declining footfall of buyers and increasing cost, now they are keeping limited stocks of only those products which are easy to sell or remain in demand always. Now most of the exporters get production done only after finalizing orders rather than keeping stock with them. As far as manufacturing is concerned, the exporters in the market have mixed kind of manufacturing, like some players of this area are mainly into trading, most of them getting their products from unorganized areas like Nihal Vihar, Seelampur, while some of them are now growing and setting up their factories in the organized way. NP Singh of Cross Culture Fashions , who has a shop in the area, is one such company that is setting up a new factory on modern lines.
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