India’s apparel industry faces order shift

New Delhi, Aug 7 (PTI): Amid the civil unrest in Bangladesh, buyers will remain hesitant to place their orders in India unless the Modi government tweaks its import policies to allow greater and easier access to imported man-made fabrics, trims and accessories, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said on Wednesday.

AEPC also stated that buyers are “very concerned” with the escalation of the civil unrest in Bangladesh and have no option but to pull out their orders from the nation and place them elsewhere at least in the short term.

According to AEPC Chairman Sudhir Sekhri, most of these orders are in man-made fabrics, purchased from buyer nominated sources in China, Korea and even Europe.

“Shifting these short-delivery orders using special imported fabrics to India is not viable, given India’s current import policies. Only orders in fabrics of Indian origin are expected to be shifted to Indian factories,” he added.

The AEPC Chairman observed that buyers will continue to be hesitant to place their orders in India unless Government of India tweaks its import policies to allow greater and easier access to imported man-made fabrics, trims and accessories.

“In the long term, buyers will remain skeptical of being overly dependent on Bangladesh. Even before the current turmoil in Bangladesh, buyers were already looking for capacities elsewhere, due to capacity saturation in Bangladesh. The recent turmoil will expedite their plans. Indian factories will get a piece of the cake only if they ramp up capacities,” Sekhri stated.

Bangladesh is facing its worst political crisis since Independence in 1971. The neighbouring country has plunged into uncertainty after street protests over job quota forced Sheikh Hasina to quit as prime minister and flee.

“Buyers are very concerned with the escalation of the civil unrest in Bangladesh. In the short term, fast fashion buyers have no option but to pull out their orders from Bangladesh and place them elsewhere,” the AEPC Chairman said.