Khadi Sales Rise Amidst COVID-19 Related Restrictions

India’s Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), which retails handloom garments, fabrics, as well as beauty and lifestyle products, has reported a rise in the number of sales in the financial year 2020-21 as opposed to the previous financial year. While in the previous financial year, FY 2019-2020, the sales had plunged to ₹ 840.97 crore from ₹ 3,215.13 crore in FY 2018-2019, the sales in FY 2020-2021 showed a 3.6X growth to ₹ 3,079 crore.

The KVIC attributed the sales growth to government orders, new outlets and consumers buying more locally. As per the MSME Ministry dashboard data, the number of Khadi institutions also rose from 2,687 involving 4.96 lakh artisans in FY 2019-2020 to 2,790 Khadi institutions involving 4.97 lakh artisans in FY 2020-2021. The Chairman of KVIC, Vinai Kumar Saxena said in a statement, “We have added more than 527 new Khadi institutions and distributed over 50,000 new charkhas (to artisans) and around 10,000 looms that have added to the production. While the impact of the second wave will be there, we will plan on growth once the lockdown lifts.”

He also added that while the pandemic slowed sales down, their new e-commerce portal and aggressive marketing made a difference. The new online platform, which was launched in July 2020, has contributed to sales worth over ₹ 1.12 crore in less than a year of operations.

Images for representational purposes only.