MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's textile industry plans to tap newer geographies to beat an economic slowdown in traditional strongholds of U.S. and Europe, but finds higher tariffs a major hurdle, a top official of an export body said.

"You need to access new markets. In Japan, already there is a big effort going on. In Australia, we will make similar efforts in October and November," Executive Director Siddhartha Rajagopal of Texprocil told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday 21 July.

Texprocil, or The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council, is a pressure group made up of textile players and representatives from the federal government.

In fiscal 2008/09 overall textile exports is estimated to have fallen to $21 billion, he said, from about $22 billion in the previous year.