Spot orders from the global buyers at the 24th Bangladesh Apparel and Textile Exposition which ended on Saturday declined for the second consecutive year as many international buyers skipped the fair this year. Leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on Sunday said the Batexpo received spot orders worth $58.37 million this year, 5 per cent down from $61.67 million in the previous year.
In 2011 the fair got spot orders worth $66.35 million.
Like the previous year, the BGMEA leadership attributed the decrease to the political unrest in the country.
‘What we have achieved is more than our expectation as we kept this year’s fair low-key, considering the ongoing political instability in the country and keeping in mind the two major factory disasters –– Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza collapse,’ the BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age.
The three-day event was organised at the Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
Shahidullah said that global buyers were concerned about the political situation in the run up to the general elections in Bangladesh.
‘Global buyers know very well that political situation in Bangladesh usually remains turbulent in the election year. So many traditional buyers did not attend this year’s Batexpo,’ he said.
Last year, at a post-Batexpo press briefing, the then BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said the spot orders at the three-day event declined amid political instability coupled with the general strikes enforced by the opposition alliance on the second day of the fair.
The Batexpo-2012 got spot orders worth $60.25 million and the stock lot orders worth $1.42 million.
Shahidullah said about 136 international buyers visited this year’s exposition while last year the number was 159.
A total of 2,556 representatives of buyers visited this year’s fair while the number was 2,846 in the last year’s event that was held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka in December 12-14.
In 2011, as many as 175 international buyers and 3,015 representatives of local and international buyers had visited the exhibition.
-With New Age input
