Refayet Ullah Mirdha

Cotton imports witnessed a slump for the first time in over a decade last fiscal year due to a fall in demand from local mills amid a stunning drop in apparel work orders for the global coronavirus pandemic.

The government will allow construction of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) by individual tanneries inside the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate (STIE) in a bid to expedite the process of obtaining much-needed certification from the Leather Working Group (LWG) to boost export of leather goods.

It appears garment manufacturers are at last breathing a sigh of relief as work orders for apparel items from international retailers are coming back with the reopening of their stores in the European and American markets.

The government was hoping there would be no recurrence of the waste of rawhide last Eid-ul-Azha.

July, it seems, will go down the annals as the month in which the Bangladesh economy lifted the pall of gloom brought on by the global coronavirus pandemic.

The rawhide business at the retail level across the country faces a major blow this year as well because of the low demand despite government's efforts.

Almost all the garment and knitwear factories have paid their workers Eid festival bonus and salaries for July yesterday, in a refreshing departure from previous years, where the days leading up the religious festivals are almost always marred by demonstrations.

The economy, it seems, is in a sort of limbo, neither fully on recess nor roaring ahead.

The owners of many companies in Bangladesh’s 42 various industrial, manufacturing and service sectors failed to provide their workers with festival bonuses for Eid-ul-Azha by yesterday, the stipulated deadline to disburse the annual allowance.

The government yesterday gave yet another stimulus package worth Tk 3,000 crore for the export-oriented industries to help them provide wages and salaries to their workers for July.

Risk looms large of a recurrence of last year’s discarding of rawhides en masse during Eid-ul-Azha in Bangladesh this year for a low injection of funds in the sector and a lack of preparedness of both the government and traders.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to bring surprises, this time around in the form of booming sales for spinners, weavers and finishers who serve the local markets.

Aiming high is always a welcome attribute. But, sometimes, in its quest, one ends up setting targets so high that it just seems hopeless.

Pandemic-hit apparel exporters have sought continuation of low-cost loans from the government for three more months to help them pay wages to workers as the sector is struggling to stay afloat.

One has got to feel for the garment workers. Despite the availability of low-cost loans to pay wages, repeated requests from the labour ministry and a recent uptick in work orders from international buyers, they are getting the chop.

The promising growth in export earnings seen at three Asian markets during the previous fiscal year has come to a halt following the coronavirus outbreak.

With the reopening of outlets of major clothing retailers and brands in the EU and US, the inflow of work orders at local garment factories has been on the rise, albeit on a limited scale.

Apart from the traditional markets like Europe and the US, Bangladesh should focus more on the Asian markets to revive export earnings during the time of the pandemic, said Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

With a slump in demand for commodities among the Western consumers, Bangladesh needs to remodel its business plans to revive exports in the time of Covid-19, which has severely affected the global economy, economists said.

Earnings from merchandise exports in the immediate past fiscal year fell 16.93 percent year on year to $33.67billion because of Covid-19 that affected production and slowed demand for commodities.