He's not alone. Bangladesh is the world's second-largest apparel producer after China, but its industry leaders say international retailers are either refraining from placing orders, delaying buying decisions or demanding steep price cuts.

"This is a disaster. We are taking orders just to survive," said Siddiqur Rahman, a garment supplier to international retailers including H&M and GAP Inc .

"We anticipated orders could look up before the Christmas but that didn't happen."

Rahman said customers were demanding price cuts of as much as 15%, making the recovery that much harder.

In the financial year that ended in June, Bangladesh's garment exports totaled $27.94 billion (21.6 billion pounds), down 18% from the previous year.

There was a rebound of less than 1% in the July-September quarter, thanks to a surge in demand for knitwear items, which account for half of Bangladesh's total garment exports.

But nearly half of factories producing knitwear products like t-shirts and sweaters are finding it difficult to remain open, said Selim Osman, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

"A second wave could further delay the recovery," Osman said.

Low wages have helped Bangladesh build its garment industry, with some 4,000 factories employing 4 million workers. Readymade garments are a mainstay of the economy, contributing almost 16% of country's GDP, according to the central bank.

 

 The story of growth of the garment sector and the textile sector supporting it are well known.  By 1985, industrial development in Bangladesh had made very little progress and the focus on import substitution as the basis for development of manufacturing growth had failed. The basis for a shift to export-led growth was rejected by the government planners believing that it was impossible to expect Bangladesh to become competitive in the international markets. This pessimistic view was deeply rooted in the thinking of most of the senior economists in Bangladesh who had been trained in Britain. This pessimism that resulted in the weak performance of the British economy for decades was accepted in Bangladesh. Surprisingly, a few of the Korean companies believed it was possible to develop competitive export industries making garments. The quota system in place meant that exports from Bangladesh were initially free of quota restrictions so if the Bangladeshi workers were able to produce the clothes at a competitive wage rate, then there would be a future for Bangladesh in the global textile market.

 

old knitted fabric. Textile factory in spinning production line and a rotating machinery and equipment production company

 Bun Chhineda sits with her parents and siblings in front of a small wooden house. She lives between the city of Svay Rieng and Bavet, an industrial zone located near the border with Vietnam.

The 21-year-old sits here everyday now, having not been able to work since she was shot in the back while demonstrating for better working conditions.

"I used to sew shoes. It was hard work. But I can't do it anymore," she explains.

She used to work at Kaoway Sports where 1,000 women are employed. They earn 66 US (50 euros) dollars per month and wanted better pay, better working conditions and better food.

"We demanded overtime pay," explains Keo Nethg, who lives around a kilometer away from Bun Chhineda. "In the end, it would have been around five dollars more. And the food was so bad that we wanted to get money for food."

Public awareness and the demand for traceability have increased, and many global brands already have a dedicated fashion collection made from certified sustainable content derived from organic, recycled or sustainable material.

Control Union has played a decisive role in assisting the textile industry in meeting standard requirements.

As an example, the EKO Sustainable Textile Standard, developed by Control Union, was the first standard for the textile industry which addressed sustainability. Control Union also played an active role in developing the Responsible Down Standard (RDS).

 

If you work in the fashion industry, chances are you work with textiles almost constantly. Whether you’re shopping for, printing on, or working with textiles, they never seem to differ much from any fabric you’ve worked with. Ever wonder why this is? And if they’re truly the same thing, what’s the definition of a textile and how is it different from fabric?

As it turns out, textiles have many uses outside of the fashion world. Aside from the obvious— clothing, bags, home decor, and so on— textiles are an important part of the medical field, toy manufacturing, weaponry, agriculture, and other unexpected fields. If you’re wondering what’s the difference between textiles and fabric, the answer is a lot more specific than you’d think.

 

 Vietnamese companies are struggling to fully benefit from the European Union (EU)-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) as the country does not produce enough or competitively-priced raw materials for its textile industry. Businesses are unable to meet rules of origin requirements to enjoy tax incentives, according to the country’s SSI Securities Corporation. ovin text. Ab

To do so, they need to use fabrics either domestically produced or imported from countries that have free trade deals with the EU.

Vietnam depends on China for 60-70 per cent of its textile feedstock and fabrics imported from South Korea account for only 15 per cent of its total requirement.