Textiles minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday set an ambitious goal of increasing handloom exports four-fold to Rs 10,000 crore and of doubling production to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the next three years.

At present, handloom exports are worth Rs 2,500 crore and production is about Rs 60,000 crore.

“We will go for a Rs 10,000-crore target for the export of handloom products and increase our production to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the next three years,” he said during the celebrations for National Handloom Day.

He suggested that a team be formed under the chairmanship of Sunil Sethi of the Fashion Design Council of India consisting of weavers, trainers, equipment makers, marketing experts and other stakeholders to recommend ways to promote the sector.

The minister expressed the need to take handloom to the next level of growth where the sector will be able to prosper without depending much on state support. Handloom craft villages will be set up at Kanihama in J&K, Kovalam in Kerala, and Mohpara in Assam.

“We have to look for new ways to boost handloom production and explore new markets,” he added.

Textiles secretary U.P. Singh said the ministry is working on ways to ensure weavers get the right price for their products. “We are trying to onboard more players on GeM (government e-marketplace). Over 1.5 lakh weavers are there on GeM,” he said.

FDI inflow into the textile sector fell to $298.67 million in 2020-21 from $323.52 million in 2019-20.