The country's apparel-makers are now making extra efforts to raise their market share in new markets following emerging challenges for doing business with large buyers, industry circles said.
According to them, the country's readymade garment (RMG) exporters have no other alternative but to diversify their markets in order to reduce dependency on limited markets.
Besides, the local apparel exporters are also facing stringent conditions, especially in respect of compliances of work-place safety and labour rights, both from their traditional exporting destinations, they mentioned.
Experts, however, have suggested that the country's apparel makers should adopt their market diversification move without compromising the existing safety-compliance issues for the sake of greater sustainability of the industry.
To explore the new markets, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) are planning to organise single-country fairs both in and outside Dhaka and build up networking like exchange of business tours, sector leaders said.
The BGMEA is going to organise single country fair for Indian and Chinese apparel buyers, buying house and trade body representatives and other related traders in April and June. They are also planning to hold such expo for South Korea, South Africa, Russia and Mexico this year while the BKMEA will hold fair focusing the Latin America, Brazil and Chile markets by 2014.
The expo will be a platform where related business players can avail the opportunity to display their products and services to attract the Indian and Chinese buyers and their representatives about latest excellence of craftsmanship for further business development, they added.
"Diversification of markets is important to do business all the year round and also to reduce dependency from the traditional markets like the EU and the US," BGMEA vice president Reaz-Bin-Mahmood told the FE Saturday.
Season is a major factor as many factories have to sit idle or have less or even no order for two to three months of a year, he said. If these factories can build up business with the markets outside the EU and the US, they can use their full capacity and run production smoothly.
"If we have alternative markets like India, China and other South African and Latin American countries, we can easily negotiate for fair price of our products which at this moment we can't," Md Shahidullah Azim, another vice president of the apex apparel body said.
Moreover, the apparel export growth is gradually increasing in those markets reflecting a good demand for Bangladesh-made apparel products, he added.
Diversification of markets and products is also important to reduce different business risks that emerge due to recession and one-after-another industrial tragedies like Tazreen and Rana Plaza that have seriously highlighted the safety issues in the garment sector, apparel makers said.
Besides, apparel manufacturers are also putting their efforts to explore new markets as the buyers from the EU and the US are coming up with new and stringent safety requirements, Md Hatem, vice president of BKMEA said adding: "We are also working to ensure a safe workplace but it needs time."
In between exploration of and securing the new markets, we can able to meet many safety requirements, he hoped.
However, Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue suggested a strategic approach for diversification of products and markets.
"The new markets should be explored besides the traditional ones as they are not ready for Bangladesh. Both private and public efforts like enhance networking and creation of duty-free access or preferential access, are needed for grabbing the markets," he said.
Regarding safety issues, he said the owners should not take safety issues as burden because its resolution will bring good results in the long run. It is vital especially for attracting orders for mid and high-end products which have just started coming but Tazreen and Rana Plaza tragedies are set to stand in its way.
There are many retailers currently sourcing apparel products for the EU and the US markets and are now opening their outlets in those new markets, he said. It would not be wise to imagine that they would not require such standards as they have inter-connection, he said.
The apparel export grew by about 29 per cent in the non-traditional markets including India, China, Russia, Korea, Japan, Brazil and Turkey with earnings worth $2.97 billion in fiscal year of 2012-13 which was $1.79 billion in 2010-11.
