Due to the lockdown and a rise in import responsibility on toys, provide of Chinese toys to India has diminished, stated producers. “But at the same time, demand for toys has increased in the past three to four months because children are locked up at home and are demanding more toys.
All these factors have led to about 25% surge in domestic demand for toys, which we are trying to meet by scaling up production…but it will take us some time to do that,” stated Ajay Agarwal, a toy producer in Delhi and the president of the Toy Association of India, a physique of toy producers, exporters, importers and merchants with over 500 business members.
While organised producers like Agarwal can scale up by automating or by hiring extra labour, about 60% of India’s 3,500 toy producers function within the unorganized sector, from small items with generally as few as 5 workers. They don’t have the capital to all of the sudden enhance manufacturing.
Indian market was not at all times dominated by Chinese toys which began flooding after liberalization. As a consequence, many toy factories closed down previously 30 years; they couldn’t compete with China-made toys, particularly the electrical ones.
“We lack equipment to make electric toys. For this we need to import machines from S Korea and Japan and right now they are expensive to get with a 34% import duty. If the government reduces the duty, we can start making electric toys as well. There’s great scope of growth in this industry,” stated Agarwal. Indian producers specialize in board video games, gentle and plastic toys, pull-along toys, play dough and puzzles.
But we’ve got competent labour – toy-making is labour-intensive. If the imports come down, an increasing number of funding will circulation in,” stated R Jeswant, CEO, Funskool India, a number one Indian toy model.
At toy store as much as 70% shelf house is taken up by Chinese toys and 25% by Lego, made in Denmark. “We also import from Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines…Indian toys are good but they don’t make electronic toys,” stated Sanjay Pahwa, Owner of 40-year-old store.
Suhasini Paul, a toy designer based mostly in Delhi who has lived in China and visited many toy factories there stated that the Chinese produce every kind of toys, cheaper one to dearer high-quality ones. “But due to budget issues our toy importers only bring cheap Chinese toys in India,” stated Paul.
Manufacturers complain that retailers don’t give sufficient house to Indian toys. “With Chinese toys they earn better margins and therefore they prefer stocking them more,” stated Manish Kukreja, CEO and director of Shinsei Toys and the president of All India Toy Manufacturers Association.
Kukreja added that if retailers reserve 25% house shelf for India-made toys, it is going to give a giant enhance to native manufacturing.