Indian Toy Industry: A Step Towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat
India’s unexploited toy sector shows a huge growth possibility in the global toy industry.
The Government of India has focused on promoting exports and toy production in India by formulating various schemes.
At the same time, the toy manufacturers of India need to come up with new, innovative, and technologically advanced methods to boost domestic toy production and exports.
Indian Toy manufacturer is trying to hold its ground and earn a name as a toy manufacturing hub.
The efforts are gradually but steadily bearing fruits towards an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
As mentioned by IMARC Group, the Indian toys market reached a value of $1.23 billion in 2020.
The markets estimate to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% during 2021-2026.
Although, China takes a large part of this pie as 70% of India’s imports come from the dragon country.
In February 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first toy fair.
To boost the Toy manufacturing sector, over 1000 virtual stalls, webinars by State Governments, and knowledge sessions by experts.
When addressing the fair, Prime minister Modiji pushed the ‘Vocal for Local Toys’ slogan and said, “Most Indian toys are built out of natural and eco-friendly materials.
Can we make an effort to make minimal use of plastic in toys and use such material that can be recycled?”
To this idea, a few start-ups in our country are doing great work by making eco-friendly toys under the ‘Made in India’ tag on their product.
Toys Start-Ups
Among them, several start-ups are Ariro Wooden Toys, Desi Toys, etc.
Ariro Wooden Toys is a Chennai-based company that found in 2020. Vasanth Tamil Selvan is the Founder of this company.
The company makes only wooden toys from Neem woods. In a year, Ariro Wooden Toys have got10,000+ orders.
That financial year’s revenue is around Rs 2.5 crore.
The second one is Desi Toys which is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The company makes toys using cloth, wood, and metal.
These types of toys are more sustainable rather than plastic toys.
To cater to its customers’ growing requirements, the Desi Toys has tied up with stores like Hamley’s, The Bombay Store, and The Bargain Book Store.
Indian Toy Industry
The toy market is around US$ 100 billion worldwide and in the last few years, the US, China, and Japan have projected themselves to be the top three countries in toy sales worldwide.
India exports toys worth up to US$ 130 million in the year 2019-2020, with the US and the UK being the lead export destinations.
Though the Indian toy market worldwide is a mere US$ 1.5 billion or 0.5 of the total global market. It’s growing gradually at a healthy pace of around 15% per annum, indicating a huge possibility of placing the toy industry on the global map.
Thus, the country’s toy exports are estimated to grow to US$ 2-3 billion by 2024 and with a total domestic demand of US$ 1 billion.
India presently imports an estimated 80% of its domestic demand from other countries, predominantly China and this indicates that India can accomplish only an estimated 20% of its domestic demand.
Currently, India is importing US$600 million worth of toys imported from China, most of which manufacture injection-molded plastics and electronics.