Indian manufacturers are hopeful of carving out a bigger share of the fabric market in Bangladesh as that country’s strength in the global readymade garment supply chain, has been growing fast, say India’s textile raw material exporters. Bangladesh, the second largest garment exporter worldwide, largely relies on India, apart from China, for garments raw materials. Currently, Bangladesh imports fabric worth $7 billion a year to run its garment sector. Of them, fabric worth more than $2 billion come from India and $5 billion from China, according to industry people.
“Bangladesh is a better garments manufacturer than India and the garment sector is dependent on fabric import, which has created an opportunity for Indian fabric manufacturers,†says Rahul Kaviya, director of Ayma Creations Pvt Ltd, India. Ayma Creations is a Gujarat-based manufacturer of suiting fabric and exporter to Gulf countries. Ayma Creations is also thinking about importing a huge volume of garment items from Bangladesh as prices are cheap compared to those in Vietnam and Indonesia.
Another advantage of importing garment items from Bangladesh is that Ayma Creations will not have to pay duty as Bangladesh has duty-free access to Indian market. This offers a good chance to garment manufacturers to boost their exports to India, Kaviya says. Many see a good future for the Indian fabric manufacturers in Bangladesh thanks to increasing demand for Indian fabric. The fabric manufacturing sector is yet to develop in Bangladesh compared to India largely because of non-availability of raw materials.