Many garment accessories factories have closed down in Bangladesh mainly due to lack of access to bank loans, short-supply of electricity and low technology-base. A total of 579 units have closed down between 2012 and 2016. Most of those were small size. Reasons: include a failure in installing modern machinery, production of fewer items, complexities among partners and failure to meet compliance issues.

On the other hand 432 new accessory manufacturing units, mostly large ones with modern technology, were added to the sector during the five-year period. The garment accessories and packaging industry is a backward linkage industry. Bangladesh’s garment accessories industry meets 95 per cent of the local demand for garment accessories. The country wants a bigger share of the global garment accessories market.

In the mid ’80s, the country’s entrepreneurs started to manufacture accessories and packaging materials. Now there are at least 30 varieties of accessories and packaging products produced. The industry supports the readymade garment, pharmaceutical, ceramic and frozen food sectors to reduce their lead time of exports. The value addition of the sector is more than 30 per cent a year. However growth of new investment has decreased in recent times due to the uncertainty of power and gas supply.