Textile and garment exporters in India: list and contacts

The textile and garment export hubs, how to check an exporter, and ready lists of exporters with contacts.

Updated 13 October 2026 · 5 min read

Textile exporters in India: what they ship and from where

Textile exporters in India range from a spinning mill selling yarn abroad to a knitwear unit making T-shirts for an overseas chain store. They buy different things and answer to different people, so before you look for names, decide which part of the trade you want:

Fibre and yarn. Raw cotton bales come from ginners and cotton traders in growing states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana; cotton and blended yarn comes from the spinning mills around Coimbatore and Erode. When people search for cotton exporters in India, they usually mean one of these two groups.
Fabric. Synthetic and blended fabric is centred on Surat, and cotton fabric on Ahmedabad and the Tamil Nadu mills.
Garments. Knitwear from Tiruppur, hosiery and woollens from Ludhiana, and woven fashion wear from the factories of Noida and the wider Delhi region, and from Bengaluru.
Home textiles. Bed linen, towels, rugs, curtains and cushion covers, with Panipat the best-known centre in the north.
Printed and handmade fabric. Jaipur's block prints and the garments made from them, sold to boutiques and fashion labels abroad.

Across all of these sit two kinds of firm. Manufacturer exporters own the mill or the stitching unit. Merchant exporters and buying houses take orders from overseas brands, place them with factories and handle sampling, quality checks and shipping. Machinery and yarn sellers want the first kind; trims, inspection and freight suit both.

Three checks before you trust an exporter

"Exporter" on a visiting card proves nothing. Three free look-ups tell you more:

The IEC. A business that exports goods needs an Importer-Exporter Code. The DGFT site lets you check one code at a time.
The RCMC. Exporters register with the export promotion council for their products and receive a registration-cum-membership certificate. AEPC, the Apparel Export Promotion Council, covers garment exporters, and TEXPROCIL covers cotton textiles such as yarn and fabric. Other councils look after synthetics, wool, handlooms, powerloom fabric and carpets, so ask which council a firm belongs to.
GST registration. The GST portal's taxpayer search shows the legal name, the address and whether the registration is active.

None of these tells you what a firm shipped, to whom or for how much. That is shipment data, built from customs records and sold separately. Our guide to exporters and importers databases explains the two kinds. Starleads sells contact lists of exporters, not shipment records.

Garment exporters in India: our contact lists

Our All-India Exporters list holds 1,90,701 exporters of every product in 523 cities. 91% have an email address and 68% a mobile number; 56% give the name of a person to ask for. For 84% of rows a category column says what the firm exports, so you can keep only textiles and garments. You can read 60 real contacts and download a free Excel sample before you pay.

Garment, fabric and yarn lists

These narrower lists come from our exporters list and from our wider textile trade list, so the same product name can appear twice: once for exporters only, once for mills, makers and traders who may also sell in India.

Exporters by city

City lists hold exporters of all products, and there are 46 of them, plus 19 state lists. Filter the category column for the textile rows:

The two All-India lists

Who sells to garment and textile exporters

Trims and packaging makers: woven labels, hang tags, buttons, zips, polybags and export cartons, often made to the overseas buyer's specification.
Fabric and yarn suppliers looking for steady export orders, and processing houses offering dyeing, printing or garment washing on job work.
Testing labs, inspection agencies and social compliance auditors, whose reports many overseas buyers ask for before placing an order.
Freight forwarders, customs brokers and container transporters serving the hubs and the ports.
Banks and insurers offering packing credit and export credit insurance.
Machinery and software sellers: sewing and knitting machines, cutting tables, pattern-making software and ERP built for merchandising.
Overseas buyers and sourcing agents looking for new factories for a product range.

Getting through to the merchandiser

In a garment export house the owner signs the cheques, but the merchandiser runs each buyer's orders: samples, trims, approvals and shipping dates. For most suppliers, that is the person to reach.

Ask for the right desk. Merchandising for trims and fabric, the production or factory manager for machines and spares, accounts for finance, and the owner for anything that needs a large budget.
Open with their buyer's needs, not your catalogue. For example: "Good morning, I'm Priya from Lakshmi Labels in Tiruppur. We make woven and printed care labels, can follow your buyer's barcode format and deliver in five working days. Could I send a sample card to your merchandiser?"
Pick the time. Weekday mornings between 10:30 and 12:30 usually work. Avoid the days before a shipment leaves; if someone says they are busy with a dispatch, ask when it goes and call the week after.
Expect these questions: price per piece or per thousand, minimum order, lead time, test reports, payment terms, and whether any of their buyers has already approved (nominated) you as a supplier.
Send a short email the same day with a PDF price list. Export houses deal with their buyers by email and expect the same from suppliers; our cold email templates give you a starting point.

Before a calling campaign, check the DND rules for promotional calls and SMS. If you sell to mills and cloth traders rather than exporters, our textile companies guide covers the domestic trade.

What buyers of exporter lists ask

Can I get only knitwear or T-shirt exporters?

Yes, if a product list for it appears above; otherwise filter the category column of the city or All-India list. Then call a few firms to confirm what they make this season.

Can I see how much a garment exporter shipped last year?

Not from a contact list. Company-wise shipments come from customs-based trade data sold by private companies, while the Department of Commerce publishes free totals by product and country. A contact list tells you whom to call; trade data tells you who ships what.