PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Two-Way Trade: Slow but Steady
While volumes and aggregate value may be small relative to trade with other partners, India is a
buyer and seller of a wide range of products important to the Bay Area economy.
Air freight to and from India is typically a combination of lower-value or less-time-sensitive
goods moving by indirect, traditional air cargo service through San Francisco International Airport
(in the absence of extensive direct passenger-cargo flights) and high-value, very-time-sensitive
shipments moving via air integrators, such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service,
through either SFO or Oakland International Airport. Ocean freight is primarily container traffic
moving through the Port of Oakland.
The top import cargoes from India include:
Cashew nuts
Coffee and tea
Rice
Vegetable extracts
Carpets
Blankets
Apparel
Kitchen/bath linens
Granite and slate
Jewelry
Rolled/coiled steel
Metal screws, bolts and castings
Engine parts
Computer power packs
Integrated circuits
Telecommunications equipment
Wooden furniture
Bedding
Lighting fixtures
Christmas decorations
The numbers reflect, in part, contract manufacturing and imports by leading Bay Area retailers,
including Gap and Levi Strauss (apparel), Williams-Sonoma (home furnishings, tableware, glassware,
lamps, rugs and linens for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm retail stores),
Restoration Hardware (bath and kitchen fixtures), and Cost Plus and Pier One Imports (clothing,
furniture, cushions, linens, decorative items, window blinds, etc.).
Oakland-based Cost Plus World Market (CPWM), for example, sources a substantial percentage
of its total product from India, and the volume of goods sourced in India has risen gradually
but steadily during this decade.
Cost Plus had its start with a single store on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf in 1958 and
capitalized on a West Coast fascination with Indian culture and Eastern religion in the 1960s and
1970s. That aesthetic remains part of its branding today: senior director for supply chain Bob
Tway says the decision to manufacture in India has at least as much to do with the look and feel
of the goods as it does with cost. “People are attracted to that style and the trendiness of the
products,” he says, “and our agent and the vendors we work with understand our brand and
what we want.” The company imports linens, pillows, window blinds, hardwood furniture, figurines
and metal products such as candleholders, among other products. Tway adds that if there is
a weakness, it is in the lack of assembly line quality control and manufacturing scale. “If you go
to factories in China, Vietnam or Thailand, it’s like night and day,” he explains.
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