Business

Pre-Eid-Ul-Fitr Sales Witness Indian, Pakistani Clothes Flood Bangladesh Markets

The Bangladesh apparel market for Eid sales is flooded with goods from India and Pakistan in a big way despite claims of growth of sales in the local sector. This being the peak sales season just ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations, the foreign goods that make merry in the Bangladesh markets owe their popularity also to affordable prices and endearing designs.

Hailing from Dhaka’s Bashudhara city, a shopkeeper says, “Salwar suits and sarees mostly come from India.” He further said that women customers have a preference for foreign clothes for their fabrics and design variety. Having a study of the method used to conduct business, the shopkeeper said, “The traders find it easy to get Indian visas after they declare that they are going on a tour. Once they return, their baggage is full of Indian clothes.”

At second rung or cheaper shopping centers like New Market, Gaussia Market and Chandni Chowk, the scenario is much the same. Most of the products in these markets hail from India or Pakistan. A New Market spokesman said, “The shopping for Eid starts from the first weekend of Ramadan. The women customers who visit us are attracted mostly by imported salwar suits.”

Furnishing statistics, he added, “Nearly 45% of the clothes in our stores are from India and Pakistan and the rest are locally sourced. Usually women customers enquire about the origin of the goods expecting to hear that they are from abroad and not locally made.”

New Market store keeper, Jamilur Rahman said in a media report, “I have local wares but most of them are made of costly cotton fabrics, prompting customers to turn to cheaper Indian synthetic-based ones. The imported salwar suits mostly range between BTK 1,500 and BTK 5,000.”