Tirupur: The increasing number of ‘fake buyers’ in the garment export sector has led to a huge loss for exporters in the Tirupur hub recently that it has prompted the Tirupur Exporters and Manufacturers Association (TEAMA) to draw up a ‘blacklist’ of such buyers to create awareness among the industrialists here.
Many garment manufacturers in Tirupur hub depend on buyers who purchase garment products from them and export these to foreign countries. However, the intrusion of some ‘fake buyers’ into the business has led to heavy losses for manufacturers.
Speaking about the issue, TEAMA president M P Muthu Rathinam said, “the leading garment export hub of Tirupur is witnessing such scams in recent times. ‘Fake buyers’ manage to get delivery of garment products from exporters and deceive them when settling amount for those products. Sometimes, the buyers debit huge amounts from exporters by finding defects in the products. In addition, some buying agents join hands with ‘fake buyers’ to dupe garment manufacturers.”
He noted that small and medium garment industries have suffered a lot and some of them have closed their units due to heavy losses. According to him, the association plans to identify these ‘fake buyers and agents’.
Mr Muthu Rathinam said that work was underway to open a website ‘Killer buyers and their buying agents’. “Garment exporters, who were mercilessly duped by such fake buyers and agents, should post all details on the website. It will help other garment exporters to avoid being duped by them.”
He also proposed setting up a committee with legal advisors to help the suffering garment manufacturers to begin a legal fight against fraudulent buyers. Mr. Muthu Rathinam also called upon garment exporters to be vigilant to help control scams and wipe out fraud buyers and agents from the business.
