Umbrella sale booms as monsoon rain lengthens

Sales of umbrella and raincoat are booming on the back of a lengthier monsoon across the country, including the city.

Traders at New Market, Farmgate and Chawkbazar in the city told the FE correspondent that umbrella of various colours and sizes were being sold in greater number now than in the past.

The small-scale umbrella industry is welcoming the monsoon as there has been a substantial rise in the sale of the item this year, traders said.

However, due to lingering rain, more varieties of umbrellas have started to arrive in the markets.

Md Aslam Ali, a manager at Maisha Trading and Co at Chawkbazar, a manufacturer and also an importer of the item, told the FE that in recent times, umbrella sales were now limited to summer rather than rainy season.

He said the industry saw a good sale in the capital city last in 2007 when people experienced incessant rain.   

He said with the prospect of lengthy monsoon this year, the businesses have manufactured and also ordered importing a good number of umbrellas.     

Md Kamal Hossain, an official of Sharif Umbrella, a pioneer in the country's umbrella-making sector, said now the trend is for small and automatic umbrellas, not those of bigger size.

People prefer automatic and folding umbrellas, he said.

"My company is selling umbrellas of both automatic and manual varieties. Price ranges from Tk 300 to Tk 3,000," he said.

He said umbrella manufacturers in Chittagong and Dhaka are expecting to sell nearly 2.0 million pieces of umbrella if the monsoon continues for the next few weeks.

However, low-cost and lower-quality Chinese and Indian umbrellas have flooded the market apart from the pricier local ones.

Md Abu Bakar Siddique, manager of Aziz Cloth and Cosmetics at New Market, said female buyers usually prefer to buy foreign-branded umbrellas while males want durable local ones.

"We sold some 150 umbrellas on Friday and this is the highest sale in last ten years," he said.

He also said sale of raincoat, both for the adults and children, has increased significantly.

He said his shop was selling raincoats worth Tk 10,000 per day, which has been the highest since 2004.

Mainly Bangladeshi raincoats dominate the market, he said.

Md Shah Alam, an employee of Shoukhin Cosmetics and Stationery, told the FE that raincoat price varies from Tk 200 to Tk 5,000.

He said mostly students now buy raincoats, he said.

Meanwhile, the Met Office, in its one-month forecast (June 25 to July 24), has predicted that the monsoon will remain active and rainfall will continue in different areas for the next 30 days, which is expected to boost sales of umbrella and raincoat.    

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