Winter Clothes: Local products losing market

At the onset of this winter, Kohinoor Begum visited the capital's New Market to buy a jacket for her granddaughter, but found it hard to find one within her budget.

“We checked the local brands first, but didn't find anything we liked within our budget,” she recalled.

Kohinoor ended up buying a Chinese-made jacket for Tk 1,600. “The quality of our local product is not impressive,” she noted with a hint of disappointment.

“I'm disappointed that our local markets are dominated by foreign brands,” she added.

Higher prices and lack of variety in locally-produced winter clothes are encouraging many Bangladeshi customers to go for Chinese and Indian goods that are relatively cheaper and come in attractive designs.

Markets popular with shoppers from middle-class income group in Dhaka's Bangabazar, Gulistan, Motijheel, New Market and Shantinagar were seen flooded with Chinese and Indian products.

Traders say they can hardly make any profit from local products.

At Dhaka's Polwel Super Market, a hub of imported apparel business, Chinese jackets and sweaters are sold at Tk 1,500 to Tk 5,000. “They're affordable and have good designs,” says Shaheedul Hasan, owner of Golden Gallery.

Khadija Rahman, chief designer of Aarong's Taaga Man brand, said their target group is the middle class. “Production quantity is one of the reasons why our prices are higher. We also try to produce better quality products than China and India,” she says.

Outmaneuvered by the Chinese, many local producers have started targeting lower-middle income customers. Swapan Mia, proprietor of Fashion Way and AI Fashion House Limited, says they manufacture jackets and sweaters costing between Tk 300 and Tk 900 for the local market. “It's because we cannot compete with Chinese and Indian technologies,” he says.

Many local sellers are going with the tide. “We're selling only foreign winter clothes,” says Mohammad Sirajul Islam, owner of Friendship Fashion at Bangabazar.

But, Sirajul says, local brands can still make a turnaround. “They have to come up with new items and designs or they risk losing more market share,” he warned.