In order to make Bangladesh denim become premium brand, a two-day “Bangladesh Denim Expo” is going to be held in Dhaka on April 25-26, 2016 to highlight the country as the prime destination of sourcing latest designs of jeans and other denim products.The expo, the fourth edition, will be held at International Convention City Bashundhara (ICCB) in the capital with the theme “Denim Evolutions”. Bangladesh Denim Expo, a non-profit and non-government organisation will organise the international denim trade show in Bangladesh to promote the Brand Bangladesh in global denim industry.According to the expo organiser, a total of 49 participants are scheduled to take part in the Denim Expo. Besides local denim manufacturers, 37 foreign participants from 13 countries will participate in the expo.The participants include entrepreneurs from apparel sector, apparel traders, fashion professionals and stakeholders of the industry from Europe, US, UK, Germany, Italy, India, China, Pakistan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Japan, Spain and Brazil. In the exposition, three seminars will be held on different issues including innovative trends and techniques of denim world. Organisers will focus on denim and all different aspects of design, production, finishing and marketing. Besides local industry leaders, Amy Leverton, internationally renowned trend forecaster and Jordi Juani, Division Director of Jeanologia, a world leading company, and specialists in sustainable and efficient finishing technologies for textile sector, will take part in the seminar. Most of the participants are inspiring experts of the global denim industry.Amy Leverton will make a presentation on ‘Denim Trends 2017,’ Jordi Juani will present a paper on ‘Bangladesh Horizon 2021: A Technological View.’ And ‘No-stone and Water Brush: Break Through Innovations’ will be presented by the representative of Tonello, a garment finishing technology company. Mostafiz Uddin, Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo said, Bangladesh Denim Expo has been able to draw huge response from international community like global retailers and brands. He said, the 3rd edition of the expo was able to draw around 2300 visitors, most of them are from France, Spain, Germany and Turkey, and the most of them were buyers.He was hopeful that the upcoming denim expo can draw more visitors this year.‘The expo aims at bringing foreign experts here and to introduce our products as the premium brand besides boosting our industry by enriching the industry people about latest trends of denim from foreign exhibitors through exchanging experiences’, he added.The expo founder said, the main purpose of Bangladesh Denim Expo is to create a platform for the country’s denim manufacturers to showing their latest innovative designs of jeans to the global buyers and retailers and inform them about our industry strength.He said, the country wants to achieve the third largest position as denim exporter after the US and Italy by the year 2021 when the country’s total RMG export is targeted to reach $50 billion mark. Mostafiz Uddin said, Bangladesh is much known and favourite as a major source of denim products among the international retailers for its low prices. Bangladesh has become world force in the denim industry and it has the potentials to become a premium brand denim producer in the near future, he claimed.Bangladesh’s strength is its large population, skilled and disciplined workforce, and their experience, voiced the proud entrepreneur. “I have a dream about Bangladeshi denim and that is the country will be a premium brand for jeans and the local manufacturers are entering into a new era for value-added product manufacturing besides their existing capacity in basic denim production”, mostafiz added. Bangladeshi Denim will play very important role in raising country’s export earnings, which is already the second largest RMG exporter globally after China.Bangladeshi manufacturers are also increasing their production capacities because of the higher demand from foreign customers.Bangladesh marks 8 percent increase in denim jeans export in 2015. Total 26 denim fabric mills have made a total investment of $834 million who jointly produce 360 mikllion yards of denim per year. The country is producing 360 million yards fabric per year to meet 45 percent to 50 percent of the total demand and largest plants are being setup throughout the country.According to the industry insiders, the use of denim is on the rise worldwide and that is why its growth in Bangladesh would be 300 percent in the next 10 years, while the global growth would be between 8 percent and 10 percent.Mostafiz said, Bangladesh will be the third largest denim exporter, after the US and Italy by 2021.The orders for denim have already shifted from China to Bangladesh, which is a major growth prospect for the country’s denim trade.Besides, the rise in production cost in competitor countries will help Bangladesh boost its denim industry and help grab more market share.China is losing its denim business for high costs of production and a shortage of workers, said Mostafiz Uddin.According to the industry insiders, the country has 5.10 percent share in the global apparel business, and the industry contributed 16 percent to the country’s GDP.
