Indian Buyers Beef Up Drive To Import Bangladesh Garments .

Indian buyers have been showing interest in garment items from Bangladesh following the duty free access of 48 textile products to India.

Despite devaluation of Indian Rupee against US Dollar, the prices of Bangladeshi products are still much less than their products, Indian buyers said.

Manish Pabanker, a buyer from Maharashtra in India, while talking to the FE at a city hotel said Indians have a liking for Bangladeshi clothing.

He said specially jeans, trousers and tea-shirts attract the fashion conscious youngsters of his country.

Manish, who supplies woman-wears to shopping malls in Mumbai, the capital city of the Maharashtra said: "You know, Mumbaians are among the most conscious buyers in India. They have clear idea that German, England or US women wear Bangladeshi garments."

"So, they don't want to be deprived of that", Manish said.

The Marathi buyer said he usually supplies products to the famous malls that include High Street Phoenix, Atria Millenium Mall, InOrbit Mall, Oberoi Mall, Infiniti Mall and Hypercity Mall in Mumbai.

He said apart from the metro, Bangladeshi products have a great demand in rural and suburban areas in India.

"An Indian standard Bangladeshi T-shirt, jeans or trouser costs us nearly 15-20 per cent less than our local sources even after minimising the transportation costs and the recent 22 per cent devaluation of Indian currency," Pabanker said.

Deepak Maheswary, managing director of Gauri-Sankar Fashion (GandS Fashion), a buying house in Kolkata, the capital city of Paschimbanga province said Bangladeshi garments have a huge demand in the mega-cities of India including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Chandighar and so on.

He said people of Paschimbanga are nostalgic about the Bangladeshi products.

They love everything from Bangladesh including Hilsha, cigarette and Jamdani sarees.

"The recent duty rebate by India has come as a blessing for them to buy Bangladeshi products," Deepak added.

He also pointed out that a few non-tariff barriers still exist which are working as obstacles to the business.

"In explanation he said, a few months back, the customs challenged me and said that my imported T-shirts should be tested by the Bureau of Indian Standards at its headquarters in New Delhi".

It took a month for getting the clearance and most of my profits were eaten up by the unnecessary wastage of time.

"We hope, the government of Bangladesh will talk to our authority concerned to ease those non-tariff barriers," he added.

A key official of the state run Export Promotion Bureau said the export was low in July but it increased in August.

The shipment will get a boost in coming months following Sharadia Durga Puja, Dewali and Dasara festivals across India, he said.

Besides the formal RMG items, a significant number of Sarees and Punjabis are being exported to the neighbouring country.

He expected that the export will increase significantly in the current financial year following the duty free access of Bangladeshi (48 textile products) goods to India.

"This will also help minimise the huge trade gap with our friendly neighbour," he added.

When asked on some non-tariff barriers, Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) president and RMG sector leader Abdus Salam Murshedy told the FE that it is a matter of concern for authorities of the respective countries to remove all kinds of barriers to ease business.

He said India will be the largest export destination of Bangladesh after EU and US if all barriers to shipment could be eliminated.

Murshedy, also managing director of Envoy Group, expected that exports to India will surpass $2 billion in the current financial year.

EPB officials informed the FE that export of formal and non-formal RMG items to India increased to US $1.0 billion in just concluded FY '12 from $ 0.45 billion in FY '11.

Meanwhile, trade gap of Bangladesh with India which was $1.99 billion in FY'7 reached nearly $5 billion in FY'12, EPB said.

Source : yarnsandfibers.com