At a buyer forum meeting held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, representatives from 65 international retailers including Walmart, Gap, JC Penney, C&A, Tesco, G-Star, H&M, Target, Inditex and Carrefour, who source garments from Bangladeshi factories, sought an immediate solution to the current political unrest in the country, which is affecting country’s apparel exports.

The group of retailers also demanded that the government must keep political tension away from Dhaka-Chittagong highway to enable smooth supply chain. Usually, around this time of the year, buyers discuss future course of negotiations with the manufacturers in Bangladesh, however, the current situation has led them to demand resolution to the internal issues impacting exports and imports. Out of the total $25 billion worth of garment exports a year from Bangladesh, the retailers who attended Dhaka meeting place garment orders worth $22 billion.

In 2014, export earnings saw slow growth due to the impact of political uncertainty and two major industrial accidents viz. Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse that claimed several lives. In the first six months of 2014, export earnings registered single-digit growth and in the last five months, the figure registered below one per cent growth. Export earnings in January-June period amounted to $14.42 billion, according to the statistics of the Export Promotion Bureau.

In the second half of 2014 the readymade garment sector straggled with shortfall of order due to non-compliance issues as after Rana Plaza tragedy buyers shifted their orders from the factories housed in shared buildings. The export earnings in the July-November period of 2014 grew by only 0.92 per cent to $12.07 billion.

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