Bangladesh is a preferred destination for apparel sourcing among global buyers. Besides, it is becoming a more important apparel-sourcing destination for the full fashion industry – as brands are putting their faith in Bangladesh due to its reliability, capacity and safety.
In addition, as the global geo-political scenario shifts – a lot of work orders are shifting from China, Vietnam and other destinations.
Figure: Innovation and value-addition are paramount to continue sweater export growth.
On top of it, the country has diversified its fashion product portfolio to value-added items. The global fashion trend shift has benefitted the country. Among the shifts, sweaters become an all-weather fashion item in cold countries with the concept of being next to the skin. As the temperature has gone up in many cold countries due to climate change, driving down the demand for thick sweaters and pushing up the consumption of lightweight sweaters. And Bangladesh is one of the top sweater-exporting countries right after China.
According to data, Canada, the EU, and USA are the main export markets. And in the Last fiscal year, the country’s sweater export was approx. $5.64 billion. And in fiscal year of 2020-21, it reached $4.05 billion, up by 12.62 percent year-on-year, according to the data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
It is now the third export item in Bangladesh, contributing 13.23% of the total garments export value. There are almost 600 factories in Bangladesh that produce sweaters.
Author: Abdullah Al Mamun, Business Unit Manager, Marks & Spencer.
To accelerate the progress – the industry needs to analyze market intelligence and co-creating the product. Proper interpretation from the buyer tech packs is also very important to show the capabilities.
To support trading flexibilities, we need to explore and invest more in local routes to bring close to the needlepoint. Also, we need to innovate fancy yarn dyeing to support trading. Focusing on sustainable attributes along with renewable energy is required. Need to focus more on reuse, recycling, and upcycling to cope with circularity. Some special washes like acid wash, lambs’ wool treatment, etc. should be use more.
One of the ways is to focus more on Nobel fibers such as exploring on the complete supply chain of pure cashmere.
