Pabna’s hosiery industry needs support to survive

Pabna is known as a hosiery manufacturing hub that supplies a range of garment items, such as inner wear, legwear and socks, all over Bangladesh.

This industry that centres around knit fabrics was nearly upended by the introduction of modern production practices in the early 1980s but managed to soldier on by making use of garment waste.

Now, there are over 1,000 factories of all sizes operating in the district that depend on garment waste to make their products, bringing much needed opportunities for small entrepreneurs.

For a few decades now, these factories have produced t-shirts, trousers and other items from garment waste, locally known as "jhoot", according to Md Monir Hossain (Popy), president of Pabna Hosiery Manufacturers Group.

Around 820 registered knitwear makers are doing business in the district, producing garment materials from waste to register a collective yearly turnover of more than Tk 500 core, he said.

Besides, the industry employs over 12,000 to 15,000 people in Pabna while increased exports are helping to bring in foreign currency as well, Hossain added.

"At the beginning, we used to sell only to local markets but now, quality clothes produced from jhoot, mainly collected from Gazipur and Dhaka, are being sold in India, Malaysia and Bhutan," Md Babu Miah, a hosiery manufacturer, told The Daily Star.

However, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to many hardships for his business for the past one-and-a-half years.

Miah produced more than 2,400 t-shirts at his small factory for sale this year but most of them remain unsold due to a lack of customers in recent months.

Other factories have been similarly affected and have either reduced their production capacity or closed down completely as a result.

"I have been selling my products to Malaysian and Indian markets for a couple of years now. Due to increasing demand, I had expanded my business with 30 sewing machines in a rented building by taking bank loans," said Rasheduzzaman Rassel, a leading t-shirt producer in Pabna.

"But the investment has become a burden for me due to poor sales over the years," he said, adding that there were more than 100 other factories like his that were suffering the same fate.

Md Abul Bashar, a garment manufacturer based in Radhanagar area, said sales decreased amidst the pandemic but the soaring price of raw materials only made things worse.

"I used to sell over 6,000 dresses collectively across Dhaka, Chattogram, Narayanganj, India and Malaysia per week a year ago but due to the pandemic, most buyers do not come regularly," he said.

"So the sale has dropped while most of the products now remain unsold in my warehouse," Bashar said.

In addition, the rising price of garment waste is also a big concern for small manufacturers.

Each kilogramme of jhoot sold for Tk 70 to Tk 90 a couple of years ago but now the same amount costs Tk 130 to Tk 150.

"This is because of increased competition in the business which has forced raw material costs to soar while the price of finished products remains relatively the same," he added.

The president of the hosiery group also said although many of them were under the small and cottage industries category, they do not get support from the government, making it difficult to survive from the Covid-19 fallouts.

"If the government takes initiative and gives support, the small entrepreneurs can survive this pandemic," he added.