European soccer drives Thailand garment exports

25 Jun '12

2 min read

Strange but true, Euro Cup football tournament has come as a boon to several apparel manufacturers in Thailand as they have received orders for producing jerseys of various European football clubs.

Thai manufacturers have received orders for making jerseys of many popular European football teams, including Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Liverpool.

Earlier too, Thai garment makers had received a flood of orders for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, being co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland.

European soccer clubs are estimated to have placed orders for 500,000 to 1 million jerseys per manufacturer.

While Manchester United has placed orders for about 1 million jerseys, Barcelona has placed order for a littler lesser quantity.

Every year, the fan base of football clubs keeps on increasing and the fan size of popular teams increases even more rapidly.

The football clubs in European countries are expected to bring more Europeans closer to home this year, despite the ongoing Euro debt crisis affecting many nations.

The Europeans visiting the Euro 2012 need jerseys to put them on and cheer their favourite team.

In view of the intense competition from countries like India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka for production of jerseys, Thai garment manufacturers did not raise prices despite facing a labour shortage.

From next year, the daily minimum wage will increase to 300 baht in all Thai provinces and several apparel manufacturers might be forced to relocate to neighbouring countries.

Textiles and apparel exports from Thailand are projected to be worth US$ 3 billion this year, compared to exports worth US$ 3.5 billion achieved during 2011.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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