Bangladesh’s imports of knitted fabrics are up 27.69 per cent. Western retailers demand the use of fabric from a particular country or vendor to manufacture apparel in Bangladesh. For instance, some western retailers recently suggested using knitted fabrics from India as the apparel products would be sold in the neighboring country, where foreign brands have set up shop. This trend has led to stockpiling of yarn and knitted fabrics.

Local spinners are in big trouble due to rising imports of knit fabrics, jeopardising investments in the primary textile sector over the years to get the industry up to speed. They are losing competitiveness due to buyers’ nomination of fabrics. Stockpiling of unsold yarn and knit fabrics has been growing every month due to such decision by buyers.

Meanwhile, brands operating in India have been encouraged to focus on sourcing from within and increase engagement levels with apparel clusters in the country. The appeal comes in the wake of a 53 per cent jump in import of garment products from Bangladesh. The expenditure on imports would have created an additional 6,000 jobs in the spinning sector, 500 jobs in the processing sector, 1,00,000 jobs in the garmenting sector and another 40,000 jobs in the printing and embroidery sector of the textile value chain.