Traders Due Over ₹2,000 Crore to Master Weavers in Satya Sai District
The ongoing war has stalled exports to Gulf countries, which would have witnessed high sales on the occasion of Ramzan.
Anantapur:Silk traders, particularly of silk saris, apart from big showrooms, are due more than ₹2,000 crore to master weavers and production houses in Dharmavaram, Muddireddipalli, and Somandepalli in Satya Sai district.
This comes as a major blow to producers of silk clothes, including saris, who are struggling due to rise in prices of raw materials. Exports of silks have also been severely affected due to the war in West Asia.
A top silk house owner from Dharmavaram disclosed that a woman trader from the coastal area in AP, who has several showrooms in various parts of AP as well as Odisha, has taken about ₹100 crore worth of silk saris. But she is evading payment of dues for the past few months.
“It is highly expensive to search for those evading payments for silk goods taken from us,” Ramanjaneyulu, a weaver from Anantapur.
Silk sari business depends a lot on the understanding between weavers and traders. Weavers supply silk saris of value up to ₹40,000 per sari based on demand from traders in different parts of AP and Telangana, apart from Odisha. Most of the supplies are on the basis of payments being made in future.
A master weaver, who has more than 50 handlooms in Muddireddipalli, has a team of employees for collection of dues. “We have to invest in our production and also believe traders and showroom owners to continue our business. Some traders end up cheating us after conducting business sincerely for one or two years. They are yet to pay for the thousands of saris they have collected from us for sales,” he underlined.
After groundnut, silk industry is the next important one in terms of annual turnover. Silk industry ranges from production of mulberry cocoons, reeling, twisting, drying of silk and, finally, weaving of silk saris on both handlooms and now power looms. Kanchi and Dharmavaram silk saris are famous across Telugu states, India and also Gulf countries.
The ongoing war has stalled exports to Gulf countries, which would have witnessed high sales on the occasion of Ramzan.
Weaver Sreenivasulu from Muddireddipalli has appeared to the government to find a solution for the various issues being faced by the weavers, including huge losses because of unscrupulous traders.