European garment buyers feel Bangladesh should focus more on value added, high-end apparel items rather than basic, traditional products to make business sustainable amidst fierce competition in global garment trade. The European fashion market is rebounding as retail sales of garment items have been increasing by 3-4 per cent year-on-year over the last few years.
Sale of denim products is especially on the rise. Bangladesh's performance with denim has been strong having already overtaken China and capturing 21.8 per cent of the market share, so this is a new opportunity. Bangladesh exports over $1 billion-worth denim products to European markets in a year and one out of every three jeans being worn is from Bangladesh.
The cost of production in Bangladesh has been increasing and the price of basic garment items is not so high. So, value added items can make the business more sustainable for Bangladesh. Bangladesh's opportunity has been increasing in European markets as China, the world's largest apparel supplier, is losing its global market share due to a dearth of skilled manpower and higher cost of production.
The end customers do not want to see these kinds of explosions, collapse of buildings and death of workers. The customers want to know about the environmental impact of industrial production in Bangladesh.
