Five top apparel items except sweater that makes up more than 74 per cent of the country’s total readymade garment exports income, declined in the last fiscal year, according to industry insiders. Shirts, trousers, jacket, t-shirt and sweater accounted for US$20.90 billion out of total apparel export earnings of $28.14 billion in the fiscal year of 2016-17, the data showed. Out of the earnings, only sweater segment maintained an upward trend during the last fiscal. Earnings grew by 5.62 per cent to $3.36 billion in the last fiscal against its previous fiscal earnings worth $3.18 billion,. Income from shirts declined by 9.00 per cent to $2.10 billion while trousers witnessed a 4.62 per cent negative growth with earnings amounted to $6.02 billion. The country fetched $3.54 billion from jacket exports, a 6.02 per cent negative growth and t-shirt $5.86 billion marking a 4.19 per cent negative growth in FY 2016-17. “One of the reasons could be automation of the sweater units,” said Rubana Huq, managing director of Mohammadi Group, which also produces sweater. Prices dropped in sweaters and, customers placed more orders in jacquard category, she said, adding other items like shirts, t-shirts were already competitive and therefore there is no further margin to compromise on. In a market where brands and retailers expect prices to drop every season, basic products have no other space to get more competitive prices, she noted. According to industry insiders, more than 500 sweater factories in the country are currently in operation and nearly 60 per cent of those units have switched over to automation to ramp up productivity. The automation is intended to avert labour unrest that took place over payment system as workers of sweater factory get their payout on the basis of piece-rate-the number of pieces they produce daily, they said, adding the rate was not fixed in the sector, while usually it was the owners who set the piece-rate. “About 60 to 70 per cent of the sweater factories have opted for automation that helped enhance productivity,” said Md Hatem, former vice president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA). He explained that an automated jacquard machine is not only able to produce diversified and fashionable products, but can also fabricate critical designs, whoch is not possible with the manual items. A manual machine needs one operator and can produce maximum five pieces a day, he said, adding that an automatic machine, operated by a single operator, can produce about 30 pieces a day. So, many owners have already opted for expensive automatic machines to remain cost competitive in the long-run. Industry people said they import the automatic machines, mainly from Germany, Japan and China. Chinese machines are cheaper than those of Germany and Japan. The BKMEA former leader said that the overall exports did not decline in terms of volume but in value as prices of locally-made apparels are decreasing. Explaining the reasons for slower performance, Faruque Hassan, senior vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), attributed it to such factors as rising local production cost, currency fluctuation and a decline in global demand.
