On August 5, local time, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family hurriedly resigned and left the country amid protests.
In the past few years, Bangladesh's GDP growth rate has been impressive. By tilting the development of clothing and textile exports, making full use of its abundant human and raw material resources, and integrating into the global industrial chain, Bangladesh has become the world's second largest exporter of ready-made garments and an important exporter of low-priced raw fabrics, leaving a deep impression on the world.
At present, due to the riots, Bangladesh's garment factories have been closed indefinitely. According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the garment industry accounts for 83% of the country's total export revenue.
As the riots continue to intensify across the country, Bangladesh's garment and textile manufacturers have decided to close their production departments until further notice.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the highest body in the garment industry, asked all its members on Sunday to close their production departments due to the new situation.
At the same time, member factories of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) will also remain closed during the first three-day public holiday.
The trade body announced the closure of factories due to a fire at one of its member factories in Gazipur.
In Narayanganj, production at most garment factories remained suspended due to the ongoing unrest.
According to factory owners, workers entered their respective workplaces on Sunday morning and started production, but some outsiders provoked them to leave the factories.
As a result, workers of Eurotex Knitwear Ltd. and IFS Texwear Pvt Ltd. left their workplaces and took to the streets.
Subsequently, workers from several other factories in Narayanganj BSCIC and Fatullah also left, prompting other factory owners to declare a holiday to protect their businesses, said Fazle Shamim Ehsan, vice chairman of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).
Speaking to FE, Abdullah Hil Rakib, vice chairman of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), said production came to a standstill at some factories in Gazipur as workers left their workplaces after 3:00 pm.
Swedish clothing retailer H&M sources clothing from about 1,000 factories in Bangladesh, according to a supplier list on its website. H&M said on Monday that it was "concerned about developments (in Bangladesh)".
Zara, a fashion brand under the Spanish Inditex Group, has 12 manufacturing clusters around the world, and according to annual declarations, 98% of its production in 2022 is concentrated in these clusters. Bangladesh is one of the manufacturing clusters, according to its data. The company declined to comment on the impact of political unrest on its business on Monday.
Fast Retailing, which owns the Uniqlo brand, sources clothing from about 29 factories in Bangladesh. Among American clothing manufacturers, VF Corp has 49 self-owned factories in Bangladesh. And Levi's, another denim pioneer brand, has 33 factories in Bangladesh.
