The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) wants to achieve the target to export $100 billion worth of garments by 2030 by developing and selling heritage fashion products to international clothing retailers and brands.
Heritage fashion encompasses locally-produced fabrics or garments based on the cultural heritage of a country. In Bangladesh, jamdani, khadi, and muslin, among others, fall into that category.
Last year, Bangladesh exported garment items (woven and knitted items) worth $46.99 billion but the contribution of heritage fashion products was very low.
The BGMEA has been trying to diversify the export items for the past few years to achieve the $100 billion export target.
To that end, the trade body has been diversifying fibres, yarns, garment items, and markets.
It has also diversified garment items from cotton to non-cotton fibre to get better prices from international retailers and brands.
The use of non-cotton fibres has been growing gradually, with many local garment exporters concentrating on the export of garments made from man-made fibre in recent years, said BGMEA President Faruque Hassan at a press conference held at the BGMEA office in Dhaka.
The export of local heritage fashion products has also been growing gradually as international consumers are expressing an interest in fusion fashion, a combination of two or more cultures in terms of styling.
Hassan said local heritage fashion products were not used in the making of coats, jackets, or different woven and knitted items in the past.
However, after providing extended training to professional weavers, workers, factory owners, and exporters, local jamdani, khadi and muslin fabrics are now being used in the production of garment items.
As a result of this high-value addition, international retailers and brands are paying more for those garments while consumers are also paying more to buy the relatively more expensive items, the BGMEA chief added.
However, Hassan, could not say exactly how much local heritage items contributed to exports.
He only said the export was growing and that some local garment factories were manufacturing expensive jackets and other garment items from fabrics such as jamdani, khadi and muslin.
The Freight on Board (FoB) prices of the garment items made from those fabrics start at $100 but can go up to a few hundred dollars, Hassan said.
As an example, Hassan said when Bangladesh started sending garment items to Japan nearly a decade ago, many thought it would stall at a certain point as Japanese buyers are very particular and inspect the quality of garment items piece-by-piece and do not compromise with quality.
Now, Bangladesh exports more than $1.6 billion worth of garment items to Japan, which is the single largest export destination for local apparel among Asian nations and also among all non-traditional markets.
Similarly, the export of heritage fashion items will also lay the foundation for a big jump in exports in the near future as the response from international retailers and brands has been very good so far while prices are also better than for other products, the BGMEA chief added.
To grab a larger market share of such expensive garment items, the BGMEA organised a three-day trade fair at the BGMEA office in the capital’s Uttara. The fair began yesterday and will continue till February 20. Around 40 stalls are exhibiting their products at the fair.
