Shy away from non-compliant ones
International buyers of Bangladesh garment products have increased their orders with compliant factories but reduced placing orders with many factories with faulty
infrastructures after the Rana Plaza disaster, said exporters.
‘Buyers have become choosier in selecting the RMG units while placing their orders because of the pressure they are facing in their countries after Rana Plaza collapse,’ said a BGMEA leader.
The international brands and buyers are now considering the fire and structural safety as well as the labour condition of garment factories before placing orders to avoid facing protest in their respective countries, the exporters said.
Due to tightened policy of the buyers the growth of export order will be affected a bit but the overall orders will not drop, former Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Fazlul Hoque told New Age on Monday.
‘The export orders would not be largely affected as we have recovered the crisis of Rana Plaza collapse to some extent,’ he said.
To ensure the protection of their orders, the buyers are moving towards the big and better compliant factories and so there is no crisis of orders for the standard factories, Fazlul said.
‘There is a speculation that the orders will drop due to Rana Plaza collapse and frequent political turmoil; but there is no incident in major export order fall so far,’ he said.
The small and weak garment factories will face tough competition when the sector will go through a
polarisation, Fazlul said adding that the big and efficient factories would be able to cover the order fall of small factories but it would take a bit time to increase their production capacity.
After the Rana Plaza disaster, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had expressed grave concern that the order might be shifted by nearly 30 per cent to some other countries like India, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia.
After the Rana Plaza collapse which killed at least 1,131 people, mostly garment workers, the international brands also faced harsh criticism and protest in their countries for placing orders with the vulnerable factories for cheaper rates.
Former BGMEA vice-president Faruque Hassan, however, said the orders might fall as many buyers had decided not to place orders with the small factories which were housed in shared and commercial buildings.
Faruque said, ‘It is true that there is no order crisis in the highly efficient factories but to retain the export growth we have to think about the medium and small factories which are housed in shared building as the number of such kind of factories are not thin.’
‘I have received sufficient orders up to December but it is not the picture of the overall sector,’ said BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim.
A number of medium and small factories which are housed in shared and commercial buildings are facing tough time as the buyers are showing their back on them in placing orders, he said.
The big and complaint factories will not be able to handle all the orders being shifted from the medium and small factories due to the limitation of their production capacity and so the export growth might drop for the time being, Azim said.
In the wake of Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions fire, the 70 retailers and apparel brands from EU formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and announced its action plan on July 8.
On the other hand, 17 North American retailers, including Walmart and Gap, on July 10 formed an Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative undertaking a five-year plan, which sets aggressive timelines and accountability for inspections, training and worker empowerment.
Both the Accord and Alliance have announced their plan to inspect the garment factories which make clothes for them.
-With New Age input
