New Delhi: Several Indians consciously did not buy Chinese products this festive season, a survey by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, has found.
According to the survey published Tuesday, 71 per cent people from a total of 14,000 respondents revealed that they chose not to buy Chinese products this year during the festival season. The survey was carried out in 204 districts across India between 10-15 November.
Only 29 per cent of the respondents said they bought “Made in China” products this year, despite efforts by companies to curb anti-China sentiments with tactics like switching the “Made in China” label on their products to “Made in PRC” to make it harder for a customer to identify the country of origin.
When a similar question was asked in November 2019, 48 per cent of respondents had said they bought Chinese-made products.
Thus, there is a 19 per cent decline in the purchase of Chinese products this year.
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66% people feel Chinese products offer high value for money
The latest survey also asked the respondents that bought Chinese products the reasons behind their purchases.
About 66 per cent said they did so because they felt the products offered higher value for money, 13 per cent said it was the “uniqueness” of the products and 25 per cent said they were unsure.
“While on an overall basis, the Indian consumer did spend less on Chinese products this year, the key takeaway for Government of India and MSMEs is to make manufacturing more competitive in India and improve scale,” the survey noted
“If the high quality products that are Made in India can be produced at scale and cost of capital for Indian MSME is reduced through Government support, products Made in India will definitely find preference amongst Indian consumers and even other retail markets around the world,” it added.
Out of the 14,000 responses received in the survey, 66 per cent of respondents were men while 34 per cent were women. Also, 48 per cent were from tier 1 cities, 30 per cent from tier 2 cities and 22 per cent were from tier 3, 4 cities and rural districts.
Rise in anti-China sentiment in india
Anti-China sentiment has been growing in the country since Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in June. Since then, the two countries have been involved in a long border stand-off.
Last week, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan prohibited the sale of crackers imported from China.
In September, the Indian government had also banned 177 Chinese apps citing security risks.
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