There is no single agreed figure. As of October 2026, published counts for Morbi range from about 800 to 1,200 ceramic units, and the difference comes mostly from what each source counts.
A Gujarat government release in January 2026 said Morbi district has about 1,200 ceramic units. A trade report in September 2026 put the cluster at around 800 units. Both can be honest numbers measuring different things.
Why the counts differ
A "unit" can mean several things. When you see a figure, ask which of these it includes:
- Tile plants only, or every ceramic unit, including sanitaryware makers.
- Supporting businesses such as frit, glaze and packaging units that sit inside the cluster.
- Plants that are registered but closed, idle or shut for maintenance.
- Separate production lines owned by one company, which some lists count as separate units.
The number also moves with the market. When fuel prices rise sharply, some plants pause lines or shut for a period. In early 2026 several units suspended operations from mid-March during a Middle East crisis that raised fuel costs, and gas use recovered only by late April. A count taken in a bad month will look smaller than one taken in a good month.
So when a seller or a report quotes a figure, read it as a rough scale, not a census. Ask what the figure counts and when it was taken. The answer tells you more than the number itself.
What the scale means in practice
Whatever the exact count, Morbi is very large. The government release puts output at about 6 million tonnes a year and employment at about 900,000 people. It says the district produced roughly 80 to 90% of India's ceramic exports, about ₹15,000 crore in FY2024-25.
For a buyer, that scale cuts both ways. You have real choice of factories, sizes, finishes and designs. But you also face a long list of sellers who look alike online, and many of them are not factories at all. Traders and agents often present a catalogue drawn from several plants. Our guide on telling a tile trader from a factory in Morbi covers the signs.
The number that matters to you
You do not need 800 or 1,200 factories. You need a short list of three to five that make your product well, ship to your market, and will accept your order size. Most of the total drops out quickly once you filter. Each filter below removes a large share of the field.
- Product filter: a plant that makes wall tiles may not make large porcelain slabs, and a sanitaryware unit makes no tiles at all.
- Market filter: if you import into the EU or the Gulf, the factory's anti-dumping duty rate and its certifications matter.
- Quality filter: grade sorting, shade control and packing standards differ widely between plants.
- Order filter: some plants prefer large repeat buyers, while others welcome a single mixed container.
Filtering this way is the real work of sourcing from Morbi. Our guide on finding a genuine tile manufacturer in Morbi sets out the steps.
How we help
We build that short list for you. We find and audit manufacturers, check samples and documents, and confirm that the company on the paperwork owns the plant. If you want a shortlist matched to your product and market, book a free sourcing review.