Textile millers missed sales of Tk 20,000cr

Shahid Alam, a yarn manufacturer for the local garment industry, used to sell cotton yarn worth Tk35 crore a month, and more so on the occasions of Pahela Baishakh and Eid-ul-Fitr.

But this year has been starkly, depressingly different. His factory in Narayanganj has been bolted shut for the past one-and-a-half month for the countrywide shutdown enforced on March 26 to flatten the curve on coronavirus.

 Unfortunately, both the mega sales events took place during this time, leaving him and his sector ruing missed sales to the tunes of Tk 20,000 crore.

The local millers produce fabrics for salwar kameez, curtains, home textile, sari, lungi, hand towels and so on. With the increase in purchasing power capacity for Bangladesh's tremendous growth momentum, sales of the goods had been increasing on the two occasions.

The weavers, dyers, printers and spinners say they were deprived of Tk 5,000 crore in lost revenue during Pahela Baishakh and another Tk 15,000 crore in Eid, which is three weeks away.

Every year, almost all the Eid sales would be cleared from factories in the first week of Ramadan. But this time, the factories remain firmly shut in the first week of the fasting month, which began on April 25.

The slump in production at the mills has negatively impacted the sales of garment, dress materials, sari and lungi in the country's major wholesale hubs such as Baburhaat, Islampur, Sirajganj and Madhabdi.

Subsequently, the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) has called for government support.

"There are so many micro, small and medium units serving the local markets, but they are not enjoying the government benefits," said BTMA President Mohammad Ali Khokon.

There are about 11,000 micro, small, medium and large spinning, printing, dyeing and weaving mills, according to the association.

So far, three members of the BTMA sent letters to the association because the banks are not cooperating with them in availing the fund from bailout package, said Monsoor Ahmed, secretary of the trade body.