The ongoing agitation by textile workers over wage hike for the past three days in powerloom units in Pandesara has spread to Udhna and Bhatar industrial areas, severely affecting production in the country's biggest man-made fabric (MMF) hub in the city. At least one lakh powerloom machines have come to a grinding halt in Udhna and Bhatar. Some of the workers leading the agitation have started moving around in other industrial areas of the city to garner support for the agitation. Industry so

Bangladesh will be able to earn at least $5 billion in exports from leather, leather goods and footwear in the next decade if it can properly address health, environment and compliance issues in the sector, analysts said yesterday. “We have all the elements, such as cheap labour and raw materials to grab more orders,” Bazlul Haque Khondker, an economics professor at Dhaka University, said at a roundtable.. But the country lacks environment friendly tanneries to process leather, posing as t

Garment export to Japan is on the rise thanks to the Far East island nation's attempts to reduce its import dependency on China. As part of the move, the country's garment manufacturers have been exempt from paying the 17 percent duty upon entry to Japan. In fiscal 2012-13, the country exported $478.48 million worth of garment products to Japan, up 18.5 percent year-on-year, according to data from Export Promotion Bureau. The upward trend in exports to Japan is an extraordinary feat, gi

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) wants the government to allow duty-free import of fire safety equipment in the next budget. It will place their demands at pre-budget meet with National Board of Revenue, said BGMEA leaders. They said the duty-free import will help them ensure safety and security of the RMG workers by installing safety equipment as per the requirement of the global retailers. The apex body of the apparel sector will also demand allowing

Recent reports on building safety and working conditions in Bangladesh reveal that little has changed for tens of thousands of garment workers since last year’s Rana Plaza tragedy at Savar, just outside Dhaka. Last April 24, over 1,120 people were killed when the shoddy, eight-storey Rana Plaza building, containing garment factories, shops and other businesses, collapsed in one of the world’s worst industrial disasters. Rana Plaza building A report published last month by the Banglades

A local human rights group with strong international ties called Friday on Adidas, Nike and Puma to take accountability for recent mass faintings in Phnom Penh factories that produce their sportswear. “We call on international brands such as Adidas, Puma and Nike to take concrete measures to address wages that currently do not satisfy basic needs nor provide for a life with human dignity,” the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) said in a statement. On Friday, 128 garment workers repo

The production of cotton in China is likely to drop by about 10 percent this year, mainly due to the Government’s decision to end the cotton buying and storage policy, the latest official statistics show, reports cctv.com For the last three years, the Government of China’s cotton purchase and storage policy assured that the benefits of cotton growers were protected, but from now on the returns that farmers would get on their produce would depend on market forces. Government officials who s

US licensor Walt Disney has dropped Pakistan from its list of ‘Permitted Sourcing Countries’ from April 1, sources in the textile industry confirmed on Wednesday. The US entertainment giant banned any import from Pakistan as the country failed to satisfy the trading partner company of its intentions to improve what it considered “poor governance standards”. “There is no ambiguity in the position taken by Disney. No shipment is permissible to any certified agent or vendor dealing in the bra

In the aftermath of latest record apparel earnings, Sri Lanka is now entertaining bigger apparel dreams. “Our internationally recognised apparel sector has shown strong performance, and has earned revenues of $ 4.3 billion in 2013. President Mahinda Rajapaksa now wants us to be among the world’s top 10 apparel export countries by 2020,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen on 21 March. Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the inauguration event of the newly established Leath

To boost domestic silk production, Assocham has urged the government to extend anti-dumping duty on raw silk imports from China, which have grown by 7 per cent during the last 12 years, till December 2015. The Government had imposed antidumping duty on imports of Mulberry Raw Silk of 2A grade and below from China in January 2003, which remained in force until January 2008 and was subsequently extended till January 2014 after a sunset review. "Silk import restrictions have two facets; one i