Textile Ministry has held preliminary discussions with industry players on the possible implications of the Bangladesh political crisis on Indian apparel and textile exports. The focus of these discussions was on how Indian exporters could gain from a probable ‘Bangladesh plus one’ situation that could arise if foreign brands sourcing from the neighbouring country look for alternative sources, officials said.
Problems in scaling up capacities to meet the additional demand was the biggest concern highlighted by the industry in a meeting with Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah earlier this week on the Bangladesh situation, a source told businessline.
“India may not benefit immediately from Bangladesh’s production loss due to the ongoing unrest because we don’t have the capacity. It can’t be augmented so fast. Only knit-wear producers, mainly in Tirupur, that manufacture on a per-piece basis and are in direct competition with Bangladesh, may gain to some extent. But the gains will be limited,” the source said.
Bangladesh’s garments industry, which accounted for exports worth $47 billion in 2022-23 making the country the second largest exporter of apparels after Vietnam, suffered a blow owing to violent anti-government protests in the country that resulted in factories shutting down. Tensions spiralled after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina abdicated her post and fled to India on August 5.
While things are now fast getting back to normal, at least in big cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong, after the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge last week, there is a perception that big brands may not want to increase their sourcing from Bangladesh, especially if there is a delay in restoration of normalcy, the source pointed out.
“The US orders, quite likely will move to Vietnam, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, while some part of it could move to India as well. The European orders that Bangladesh catered to may move to different places depending on the item as right now there isn’t enough capacity in India. Premium denim may move to Turkey or Portugal. Men and women’s trousers, lowers and suits may move to countries like Morocco, Romania and Bulgaria. Lingerie may move to Sri Lanka,” pointed out Mithileshwar Thakur, Secretary General, Apparel Export Promotion Council.
Thakur said that both the Indian industry and the government need to take steps for augmenting capacity. “Unless we do something big such as tweak policy and bring something on the table that will result in some extra benefits to producers to off set the cost disadvantages that we have compared to competitors, augmenting capacity would be difficult,” he added.
The government expressed hopes that the seven Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) parks, that are to come up across the country with a total outlay of ₹4,445 crore, will change the scenario, but the industry was quick to point out that these would not come immediately, the source said. “The industry raised the issue of liberalising fabric import policy, particularly for MMF, so that imports from Bangladesh is made easy,” the source said.
The need to expand capacities by moving to the hinterland where adequate labour is available, rather than wait for labour to come to the factories, was also discussed.
“There is a general feeling that while India could not capitalise on `China plus one’ strategy of the West that gained momentum following Covid-19 disruptions, there is need to capitalise on `Bangladesh plus one’ if the situation arises. Or it will be another case of missed opportunity,” the source said.