Defeating archrival Pakistan Bangladeshi made bed-sheet, curtain and cushions are wining more and more Europe and American homes due mainly competiveness and high quality.

According to Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) — the home textile export raked in US $ 1.62 billion in the recently concluded 2021-22 fiscal year from exports, marking a year-on-year growth of 43.28 per cent. Here, one would like to add that in the last fiscal year, home textiles had earned US $ 1.13 billion from exports.

“We have been witnessing increased demand for home textiles from the last fiscal year,” told Shahidullah Chowdhury, Executive Director of Noman Group, which is a major player in Bangladesh’s home textile sector. Like most other home textile players in Bangladesh, it counts European Union countries along with Canada, United Kingdom and Japan as the major export destinations.

“Shifting orders from Pakistan during the Covid-19 outbreak was the prime reason for increase in Bangladesh’s exports,” reasoned Md Harun-Ar-Rashid, President of the Bangladesh Home Textile Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Being able to keep production going amidst the pandemic, only helped Bangladesh’s cause while also strengthening the buyers’ confidence in Bangladesh since, underlined industry people.

Bangladesh, which entered the market of home textiles in the 1980s and managed to earn only around US $ 150 million by exporting home textile products in the initial days (FY 2004-05), also managed to bag orders shifting from China and Turkey (production in both these countries took a hit owing to the pandemic), thanks to its rising popularity amongst the global buyers.

Global supply chain disruption and rising inflation are some of the challenges, which Bangladesh has very little control over.

“A number of home textile factories have shut down while many had to reduce production by 30 per cent to 50 per cent due to the price hike of raw materials and transportation issues,” claimed Managing Director of Momin Tex, Momin Miah.

Momin felt the market could have recovered from the pandemic, impacts of supply chain disruption, raw materials price hike and ripple effects of the Ukraine-Russia could still apply the brakes in the sector’s growth.

Adding to these is the current power scenario in the country — Bangladesh has recently resorted to power rationing in the form of load shedding — which not too long ago made many buyers to move orders out of Pakistan for good.

No matter the current challenges, industry players are more than hopeful that the sector is poised for growth going forward as there aren’t many that can match Bangladesh in terms of price points, proficiency and commitments.