Stand beside the scrap-based apparel makers

Manufacturing clothes from garments waste, namely jhoot, presented a tremendous opportunity for small businesses over the past three decades.

However, recently the producers are struggling to trace out potential buyers as Indian buyers showed reluctance to procure the items.

According to the Pabna Hosiery Manufacturing Group, garment products from jhoot used to bring in annual exports of around Tk 300-400 crore.

Now exports amount to around Tk 100 crore, all because the export business has expanded rapidly and in an unsystematic way.

When traders got export facilities, many rushed to the manufacturing business without proper business plans.

Most of these traders set up a few machines and started supplying clothes to merchants with export-import licences.

At the beginning, hosiery manufacturers used to sell their products in the local market, but the t-shirts and various clothes are now being exported to India, Malaysia and other neighbouring and Asian countries.

When export business was in full swing, most of the exporters opened letters of credit (LCs) for a small amount by showing low price of clothes.

A majority of clothes are supplied through illegal channels to avoid customs duties.

In this way, they reduced the price of our clothes in the international market.

There are over 1,000 small manufacturing factories in Pabna as well as over 200 big factories established in recent years targeting the export business.

On the other hand, exporters blamed the reduced demand for such products on the Indian market and the global economic crises for poor sales.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the price of our local garment products reduced in the Indian market.

Due to repeated losses for the past two years, we are feeling the burden of bank loans.

Despite its potential, the knit-manufacturing business from waste cloth is running without government support and an organised monitoring system.

We ask the government, BGMEA, FBCCI and other organizations to come up with support to expand markets for the jhoot business and extend support for them.