The government should come forward to facilitate necessary support to resolve the remaining challenges and utilize the opportunities as the sector can boost further The global knitting industry is growing at a fast rate as the popularity of knitting has grown tremendously in recent years. The increased versatility of techniques, the adaptability of many new man-made fibers and the rising in consumer demand for the greatly expanding areas of sportswear, other casual wear are driving the growth.
Bangladesh knit sector is one of the largest knit garments manufacturing industry in the world considering both capabilities and competitiveness. The sector is producing top quality knit garments at the lowest cost. Bangladesh has been a heaven for producing knit garments for global brands who are always getting the best deal here, taking out the best quality out of the lowest possible money.
Bangladesh knitwear export scenario:
There are a total of 4560 garments factories in Bangladesh exporting apparel products in the global market, of them about 2500 are knit garment factories.
With almost all major retailers, Bangladesh has a significant market share in cotton & cotton-rich knit products for the last 16 years. World’s leading brands are sourcing knit garments from Bangladesh like H&M, Walmart, C&A, Zara etc.
Bangladesh exports numerous popular knit items to the global market. Recently Bangladeshi knit manufacturers have concentrated on making value-added items to sustain strongly in the global arena.
In 2018 (calendar year), Bangladesh knit sector saw great growth. Economists and business leaders opined that calmness in the country’s political arena, the US-China trade war, and improvement in safety conditions in the ready-made garment factories were main reasons behind the increase of knit export.
Month Knit exports in 2018 (billion US $):
January 1.31
February 1.21
March 1.19
April 1.21
May 1.39
June 1.24
July 1.52
August 1.38
September 1.29
October 1.66
November 1.43
December 1.34
Major sourcing countries:
Bangladesh exports knit items to almost 50 countries where the European Union (EU) and the USA are the main destinations. According to BGMEA data, in 2018, Bangladesh knit sector exports 11.61 billion USD in EU and 1.43 billion USD in the USA. In the non-traditional market, knit sector exports 2.72 million USD.
Challenges of the knit sector:
According to sector people, the knit sector is facing the below challenges:
Lack of design input, innovation
Lack of product variety
Productivity challenge
Fast fashions pressure
Poor infrastructure
Unstable power supply
Higher bank interest
Unplanned capacity expansion
Production cost increase
Opportunities of the knit sector:
There are huge opportunities for the knit sector, some are mentioned below:
Competitive labor cost
Robust backward linkage
State-of-the-art facilities
GSP facility (other than the USA)
Increase market share by entering to the untapped product group
Increase business by entering to the untapped market
Overtake extra business from China
Thousands of factories of Bangladesh are producing basic knit products. The price of basic products is going down drastically. On the other hand, wages have been increased by 51% that is a great reason behind the rise of production cost. Standing in the situation, factories should invest to increase the capability of doing value-added products. It is not practical to increase the market share further on those basic product lines since the demand for value-added products has been increased.
Now the knit manufacturers need to identify the products where they have a poor market share and they need to develop efficient know how.
In fine, Bangladesh has already proved that it is capable to fulfill the global demand for quality knit garments, however, to sustain in the global arena for a long time, we need to identify challenges and scopes appropriately. The government should come forward to facilitate the necessary support to resolve the mentioned challenges and utilize the remaining opportunities. Also, we have to increase our knowledge level and we have to reduce dependence on basic products. We have to increase production of value-added products to cater the global buyers and get fair prices.
