Now more buyers assure garment suppliers of taking goods
Many international clothing retailers are coming up with assurances to help garment suppliers by taking the shipment of goods that contain already been produced or ordered, in a relief to the exporters reeling from the coronavirus fallout.
Since the outbreak of the deadly and highly contagious virus, many Western clothing retailers, which have been sourcing from Bangladesh for decades, have sent letters to local manufacturers requesting cancellation of current and upcoming work orders as their own stores have already been closed because of demand collapse and the measures targeted at slowing the spread of the novel virus.
As well, there have been assurances from the buyers when the apparel suppliers worldwide are facing the challenges of order cancellation and delayed shipments.
A few brands, including PVH, Inditex, Marks & Spencer, Kiabi and Target have come forward and have informed of their decision to take the ready goods together with the goods in production, said Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), in a WhatsApp message.
"We welcome their decision to aid us and hope that the payment conditions will remain unaffected in order to ensure liquidity flow for the factories," Huq told The Daily Star in a WhatsApp message.
This comes after the Swedish retail giant H&M on Sunday assured its garment suppliers of taking shipment of goods that contain already been manufactured.
Spanish retailer Inditex has confirmed it would not stop taking goods in seas or in production lines, based on the BGMEA chief.
"Similarly, French Kiabi would take all of the products that are prepared and all of the products whose work is happening."
Target of the united states has confirmed with full assurance that it would be taking all of the orders at hand and take full responsibility and develop solutions on work orders, Huq said.
"Target also reiterated that it could work as partners to emerge from the crisis and does not have any intention to cancel any order. The list gets long," Huq said.
French buyer Kiabi told Rising Group throughout a video-conferencing on Monday that it could take the old orders worth almost $14 million, according to Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, managing director of the garment exporter.
He has been supplying knitwear items like T-shirts to Kiabi for a lot more than nine years. He supplies garment items worth $120 million to the French company each year.
Kiabi has been directly sourcing garment items worth $700 million from Bangladesh yearly over the last 20 years, the entrepreneur said.
By yesterday, $2.90 billion worth of garment export orders were cancelled by international retailers, according to data compiled the BGMEA.
Some 1,059 garment factories reported a lack of 920.36 million units of work orders. The cancellation will affect 2.10 million workers.
A lot more than 3,079 woven, knit and textile factories were closed yesterday as the federal government is enforcing a nationwide lockdown. However, practically 60 factories were open, according to sources in the professional police.
The worst-affected countries such as for example Italy, the UK, the united states, France, Spain and Germany are the prime destinations of Bangladeshi garment items.
The US may be the largest export destination for Bangladesh and takes apparel items worth $6 billion a year. Germany also sources almost the same amount of garment items.
Bangladesh exports almost $3 billion worth of garment what to Italy and a lot more than $2.5 billion to Spain and France. THE UNITED KINGDOM imports a lot more than $3 billion worth of garment items.
