The country’s weaving industry has been struggling to stay afloat for the last five months due to the continued price hike of yarns.
People from the sector said that a good number of power looms had gone out of production in the last few months as they had been incurring huge losses amid a rise in the cost of production.
‘We are unable to obtain yarns at reasonable prices. Both the power loom and handloom sectors are struggling for survival amid the high prices of yarns and nearly 50 percent of the looms have gone out of production amid huge losses incurred,’ Bangladesh Specialised Textile Mills and Powerloom Industries Association president Faizuddin Ahmed told New Age on Sunday.
He said that although the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association had set the maximum prices of yarns, the weavers were unable to buy the item at the mill rate as a section of influential traders controlled the market.
‘Due to the high prices of yarns, the cost of production is going up but we are not getting additional prices in the market as fabrics imported under the bonded-warehouse facility are selling at low prices on the local market,’ Faizuddin claimed.
The BTMA has, however, requested all spinners to sell yarns to the local weaving mills at the mill rate.
The trade body on Sunday asked its member spinning mills to suspend or cancel the agent-ship of their respective agents if they charged additional prices for yarns from local weaving mills.
The local weaving mill owners claimed that no mill was getting yarns from the spinners at the rate set by the BTMA.
BTMA president Mohammad Ali Khokon in a letter sent to all weaving mills on Sunday informed that a total of seven spinning mills had agreed to sell yarns at the mill rate to them.
These spinning mills are Little Star Spinning Mills Ltd, Hazrat Amanat Shah Spinning Mills Ltd, Shah Fateullah Textile Mills Ltd, Jalal Ahmed Spinning Mills Ltd, Intimate Spinning Mills Ltd, Baishakhi Spinning Mills Ltd, and Russel Spinning Mills Ltd.
‘It is nothing but eyewash. Local weavers have no scope for buying yarns directly from spinners as the market remains under the control of a section of influential traders,’ said Narshingdi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ali Hossain.
He said that all the spinners had taken crores of taka in advance from their agents and the agents had raised the price of the yarns threefold in a day.
Ali Hossain claimed that the unstable price of yarns made the lively hood of more than 10 lakhs of workers worked in 5,000 power looms at Narsingdi area made uncertain.
M Shahadat Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Terry Towel and Linen Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that the prices of saree, lungi, and three piece salwar suits had already started going up on the local market due to the high price of yarns.
He said that amid the high prices of essential commodities, the price hike of clothes would hit the poor and middle-income earners badly.
Shahadat blamed the spinners for the monopoly in the business and claimed that the government should open the import of yarns for all at reduced tariff rates to bring down the cost of living for fixed income earners.
‘The government has imposed a 37-per cent duty on the import of yarns and the spinners are taking advantage of the duty imposition through increasing prices of yarns at their will,’ he said.
If the government opens the import of yarns at reduced duty to all, there would be competition on the local market and people would be able to buy cloths at reasonable prices.
According to the Bangladesh Weaving Board, there are 2,90,282 handlooms in the country and the livelihoods of more than 8 lakh people depend on the sector.
People from the textile sector claimed that the local weaving industry met local demand worth $5 billion per year.
