I would like to introduce myself. My name is Darshan Sahsi. I came to Canada in 1991. I did some odd jobs, forklift operating, and all that. Then I became one-third partner in Cann-Amm Exports Inc. in Maple Ridge, B.C., a small company. We started recycling used clothing, buying from Value Village stores. Value Village is an American company named Savers Inc. Their name in Canada is Value Village, and in America they call it Savers. They have around 300 thrift stores all over North America and two in Australia.
I started with my wife and five employees. To cut it short, today I have around 1,000 employees. I have exported 18,000 to 20,000 cube containers, each 40 feet high, to India and Africa in the last 12 years. This is a commodity that the Canadian government may not know about. This is a commodity we have because Toronto is the first hub of used clothing recycling, after Houston, U.S.A.
I started my plant in Maple Ridge, and I still have around 70 to 80 employees there. I just started in Toronto. I was the first one to get a duty-free licence in India from the Government of India, Ministry of Commerce, in a special economic zone called Kandla in Gujarat.
I'm facing some problems with India. When I started in India, this commodity, used clothing, was under ITC code 6309. It was an OGL, open general licence. We made our projections accordingly in India. Then in October 2004, the Indian government, with pressure from the textile industry, put it back in the restricted category. We were fighting with the government for a year or so. Then they gave us 15% local sales, 15% of the CIF value of our imports, value-wise. They kept it open for two years. Then they banned it again.
I'm here because this is a commodity we have in Canada that we are exporting. I have documented proof that I have exported 20,000 containers to India. The Indian government, to protect the textile industry, keeps opening and closing the doors every couple of years. So while the committee is negotiating with the Government of India, please keep in mind that this is a commodity we can export to India. More than 60% of the population of India needs it.
Last December and January, people were dying in Delhi because of the winter. I was mutilating blankets in my plant in India. I recycled more than 300,000 pounds every day in the plant in India, more than 400,000 last year. Because of the policy change, in May 2010, they again banned our 15%. I have all the documents. Let me explain this to you. On page 7, you can see the first time it was banned.