Bangladesh has become the world’s largest importer of denim fabrics, a raw material for producing goods like jeans, industry people said.They said as the country earned reputation in producing jeans, major global brands were increasingly coming to buy denim products here, helping the local exporters maintain a steady growth. The Dhaka Tribune talked to a number of industry people at the “Textech Bangladesh International Expo-2015” in Dhaka yesterday. They said over 60% of denim fabrics demand was met by imports from China. At present, manufacturers use denim of different kinds – regular, knit, jacquard, printed, colored and coated to produce jeans. According to the jeans makers, Bangladesh has a huge opportunity to grab a large share of global jeans market and already showed its strength. “After China, Bangladesh is the largest manufacturers of apparel products and reputed international brands source from here,” said Lisa of Changzhou Runlai Textile Co. Ltd. “The country has enormous potentials to become leader in world jeans market with many good factories and buying houses.” Lisa said considering all the aspects and growth pattern, Bangladesh is China’s largest destination for denim fabrics export. Terry Lee, sales executive of Changzhou Lihui Weaving Co Ltd, said since the Chinese apparel manufacturers were shifting from lower-end to higher-end and even some of the companies were changing their business patterns, Bangladesh could utilise this chance. Linda Huang, manager of Nanjing Sumec Textile, said sourcing from Bangladesh by US and European brands help the country expand the industry. “And since China can make all kinds of denim fabrics in terms of quality and designs, we are here to capture the denim fabrics market,” Linda added. Bangladesh has a limited number of denim fabrics producers and needs to depend largely on the imports. “Since the large amounts of jeans come from Bangladesh, the government as well as the sector people should concentrate on the issues so that the country can take the lead in the sector,” said Rafiq Azad, who works as an agent to supply denim fabrics to Bangladeshi manufacturers. He said around 70% of jeans demand would be met by the Asian producers by 2030, in which Bangladesh had a big opportunity. Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of Envoy Textile, said Bangladesh was unable to manufacture denim fabrics to meet the local demands due to lack of technical expertise and infrastructural facilities, insufficient utility services and insufficient funds. Salam underscored the need of sufficient gas and electricity supplies, low-cost financing and joint-venture investments to build capacity to locally meet the demand of denim raw materials. According to the industry people, Bangladesh produces 360m yards of denim fabrics against its demand of 720m per annum. The global demand for denim fabric is 6.5bn yards. At present, there are 25 factories producing denim fabrics while some are in the process to start production. Bangladesh holds 22.88% share in EU and 11.35% in USA denim markets and since FY2009-14 denim exports have seen 11.16% growth. The country’s denim apparel export is expected to reach $7bn by 2021.
