MUMBAI: DAMCO , A.P. Moller – Maersk’s freight forwarding company, said that exports of India-made retail and lifestyle products clocked a 16% growth in 2017,over the same period last year.In terms of growth,India has surpassed China which traditionally led from the region, and now stands at number 3. It is still marginally behind Vietnam and Cambodia which rank 1st and 2nd respectively in their retail and lifestyle exports growth in 2017.India’s 2017 growth in retail and lifestyle exports has exceeded the growth seen over the past two year“Driven largely by the increasing demand for locally-made home goods and children’s toys in North America, India’s exports have steadily gained popularity in many countries across the world because of a high-quality proposition which combines superior products, shorter lead time and scalability among local manufacturers,” DAMCO said in a release.“The big retailers of the world have India in their radar. From 1,500 in 2016, the number of shippers increased to 1,700 in 2017. The number of cities from which sourcing is done increased to 90 from 70,” Vishal Sharma, CEO India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka – for DAMCO told ET.“In addition to this, there is also the growing ease of logistics management when trading with partners in India which is a result of continuous investments by the Government and Private Players in developing India’s infrastructure ,” he added.“Moreover, these factors have attracted newer geographies to import from India thus helping us diversify our partner base, thereby improving the overall robustness of India’s export economy. While on one hand, it diversifies our risks, on the other hand it also opensnew opportunities for local businesses toexplore newer markets that can in turnlead to increased local manufacturing, greater innovation and better monetary prospects.”While export volume growth continued to come from India’s traditional trading partners - North America (up by 7%) followed by Europe (up by 2%) in 2017, new markets like Turkey and Thailand increased their sourcing of retail and lifestyle products from the geography by multiple times respectively during the same period.A further deep dive by DAMCO into specific states that contributed to the country’s retail and lifestyle products exports in 2017 revealed that Rajasthan dominated India’s export growth at 45%, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 21%. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat dominated exports to Europe, while exports to North America were led by Uttar Pradesh and RajasthanOn the commodities most actively exported overseas, the report said that while home goods and children’s toys led the highest growth at 39% and 33% respectively, bedding and bath continued to dominate the volume of retail exports from India at 33%. However, traditionally popular export commodities like India-made apparel and footwear showed a small degrowth of -7% and -1% respectively.