Agricultural Commodities » Dye & Colours

Introduction
Indian dye has application in fabric, textile, paper printing ink, leather, food and paint industries. In India 80% of the dyes manufactured is consumed by fabric & textile Industry. With excess capacity in domestic market, the emphasis is on exports is increasing the total export value of dyes and dye intermediates. It grew from Rs. 506 crores in 1990-91 to Rs. 2228 crores in 1997-98. Exports are mainly to Europe, U.S.A, Indonesia, Hong-Kong, South Korea, Egypt, and Africa.

Production area
The dye colour industry in India has about 90% of concentration on the West Coast of India i. e. Maharashtra and Gujarat due to availability of raw materials and pre- dominance of Textile industry in the state. The main domestic markets are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, U.P. and Coimbatore.

Growth promotional activities
India counts for around 5% of the total industry output worldwide. Currently there are about 40-50 units in the organized sector and 500-600 units in the unorganized sector.

Excise concession for the small- scale sector in the mid and the late 1980's resulted in establishment of numerous units in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Excise duty concession for the small- scale sector led to large- scale evasion of duties and more emphasis was given on exports because of India’s over capacity of dyes. From 25percent in 1993-94 the excise duty rates were reduced to 20 percent in 1994-95 and further to 18 percent in 1997- 98. As part of the duty rationalization process, the 1998-99 budget further reduced these rates to 16 %, which has now remained unchanged in FY2000budget.

Types
India natural dyes are generally classified either in accordance with their chemical constitution or their application in textile fibers and other coloring applications. The chemical constitution is shown by a Colour Index (CI) number. CI number determines properties of dyes such as suitability for dyeing a specific substrate and the fastness properties of dyed goods. Classification based on chemical composition is useful to chemists and manufacturers of dyestuffs while application or usage- based classification is of vital importance to the dyers.