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SILK/TODAY
source: www.tradeforum.org/news/category
front.php/id/449/1_1999.html
www.alternativetechnology.org.uk/
pdf/greenpage-nov03.pdf
www.ttnet.net/search-bin/
e_trade_news.cgi?sno=80
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Silk has a miniscule percentage of the global textile fiber market - less than 0.2%… - This figure, however, is misleading, since the actual trading value of silk and silk products is much more impressive. This is a multi-billion dollar trade, with a unit price for raw silk roughly 20 times that of raw cotton;
- sericulture is practiced in about 50 countries of the world of which 14 are situated in Asia. The Asian countries produce about 90% of the total silk in the world. Sericulture is the best suited for developing countries where manpower and land resources are in surplus. This situation is typically represented by China and India, which are the largest and second largest producer of raw silk respectively in the world scenario;
- silk production has increased by almost 100% over the last 30 years. China and Japan are the world’s main silk producers (raw and finished products) but India still produces over 14,500 tons of silk a year;
- China is today the principal raw-silk supplier on the international market. India, on the contrary is the main world raw-silkimporter;
- the trade in ready-made silk articles, formerly dominated by Europe, is at present more and more important in developing countries, such as China first, and then India and Thailand;
- the demand for silk-materials and silk manufactured products was limited to deluxe articles reserved to customers with high income. The demand widened out to spread into less expensive products, which are within the reach of customers of average income;
- such increase in terms of production has a lot of implication on the labour conditions of workers and on the environmental impact of the processes.
* The precise global value is difficult to assess, since reliable data on finished silk products is lacking in most importing countries.
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