During the past two decades, Bangladesh has developed a successful export oriented garment industry. More particularly,the knitwear industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth. Today, knitwear from Bangladesh is exported to 90 countries; worldwide. Analysis by the Bangladesh KnitwearManufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) revealed that the country hassecured 12% higher export orders during October 2008, over the correspondingperiod in 2007. US is the main importer for knitwear garments. Korea, Russia, and North America are the new markets that are currently being explored.

 

While speaking about theprospects of the knitwear industry in an exclusive interview with &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1640)%>" target="_blank">Fibre2Fashion, Mr Farhad Hussain, SeniorExecutive, BGMEA, said, The knitwear is one of the fast growing industriesof Bangladesh, as fabric for knitwear spinning is easily available in themarket and investment required to produce this particular material is quitesmall compared to other sectors.

 

Key Factors for Augmentation:

 

Initially, Bangladesh was manufacturing woven garments. Production of knitwear garments started lateron, but surpassed the former industry very quickly. There are a few factors,favorable to the knitwear industry, which has enhanced its growth.

 

  • The core strength of the country's knitwear industry is its backward linkage. Manufacturers; apart from focusing on increasing the stitching capacity, have also invested in the allied industry to increase its overall capacity. Knitwear industry of Bangladesh has become self sufficient in yarn and fabric, due to the integrated growth of spinning factories. Local suppliers are able to provide more than 90% of the total fabric requirement of the knitwear industry. 70% of the manufacturers procure their yarn from the spinners within the country.

 

  • Majority of the knitwear manufacturers are located in the main centres of Chittagong, Suburban Dhaka, Narayanganj and Gazipur districts which are located outside the Export Processing Zones (EPZ).

 

  • Knitwear industry in Bangladesh has unbeatable price advantages. They have cheap and abundant availability of work force, with unparallel stitching abilities. The industry in Bangladesh aids in reducing poverty in the country by generating employment opportunities especially to entry-level workers. Sharing his views about the labor force, Mr. Hussain states, Labor, in the country used to be underpaid. The garment sector engages the highest number of women laborers and most of them were unskilled. However, presently, the Government, in order to diminish the woes of this working class, has hiked wages. This in turn proved fruitful for the industry.

 

Knitwear to overtake WovenIndustry:

 

Increase in the use of domesticinputs has initiated the growth of knitwear industry. On the contrary, due toinadequate quantity of woven cloth manufactured domestically, wovenmanufacturers have to depend on imports. Due to this, knitwear industry hasovertaken the woven sector, their export figures for 2007/08 being more thanthat of the woven sector. Domestically manufactured inputs like yarn curtailsthe lead time and makes the products more appealing to the internationalbuyers.

 

The overall garment and clothingindustry in Bangladesh is going through unprecedented expansion, with ayear-on-year 20% growth rate. Knitwear remains the highest contributor to theexports of the country. Along with all the available resources, weak dollarvalue, aggressive marketing, and supportive political environment also aid forthe growth of the knitwear segment.

 

References:

 

  1. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1640)%>" target="_blank">http://www.bkmea.com
  2. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1640)%>" target="_blank">http://www.knittingindustry.com
  3. &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(1640)%>" target="_blank">http://textile.2456.com