Bangladesh's political crisis threatens textile trade with India

Although Bangladesh is heavily dependent on China for supplies of fabric and yarn, it also imports these products from its neighbouring country, India, as the proximity provides much-needed ease for supplies to its garment industry. Bangladesh is also one of the major markets for India’s fabric and yarn exports.

India’s yarn exports to Bangladesh have witnessed a steep rise in the post-COVID era. The country exported yarn worth $664.730 million in 2019. Surprisingly, this figure grew even during 2020, reaching $773.555 million. Bangladeshi garment manufacturers preferred Indian supplies due to geographical proximity, with land shipments (by train or road) to the neighbouring country taking just 3-4 days. The trade more than doubled to $1,968.735 million in 2021. However, it eased to $1,578.542 million in 2022 and $1,321.535 million in 2023, according to Fibre2Fashion's market insight tool TexPro.

Fabric exports to Bangladesh were noted at $733.510 million in 2019, before the pandemic. This figure declined to $531.516 million in 2020 but bounced back to $812.234 million in 2021 and $906.024 million in 2022. However, shipments slowed down to $680.067 million in 2023, as per TexPro.

Bangladesh is attempting to diversify its textile industry by adding capacity in the spinning and weaving/knitting sectors. The country is striving to reap the maximum benefits of value addition by moving towards greater integration in the textile industry. Notably, Bangladesh has achieved significant success as a garment-exporting country and poses serious challenges to China, the world’s leading manufacturing hub.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (KUL)