Sourcing and Quality Inspections in Bangladesh

It’s been widely known throughout the sourcing world that perhaps the hottest spot for sourcing apparel and textiles over the past years had been Bangladesh. While Pakistan and India struggled to maintain exports, Bangladesh had seen a new swing of purchasers because of a continually emerging industry with beneficial trade agreements in place. Factories were even moving shop to Bangladesh because of these benefits.

All of this has made Bangladesh sound like it could become the next China of textiles. However, quite shockingly, over the past year, McKinsey, a global consultancy, estimates that Bangladesh lost around 15% of its exports of textiles. Meanwhile, prices are up 25% per meter of fabric since 2010.

But who should one believe? In looking at the above divergent Bangladesh trends described above, one may decide to exercise a bit of caution before sourcing from Bangladesh, and this caution is prudent. However, if you decide that Bangladesh is still the place for you to source from, follow these steps to have a more successful partnership with your factory.

1. Make sure to audit your facility before putting down a deposit. Because of the uncertain environment in importing, making sure that you are working with a real and legitimate factory is necessary. Some poor or non-existent factories may try to play off of importers’ discomfort about rising prices by offering much lower prices. This in turn would lure in customers who they could then try to pass off unacceptable goods to.
2. Also, consider a Social Compliance Audit. As we discussed in a past article, child labor is common in Bangladesh, and this can be a major danger to your supply chain. It has been said that factory workers may make as little as around 15 cents per hour, so make sure that your factory treats your employees right.
3. Try to visit your factory to foster a good relationship, if possible. While an audit is critical, if you can visit yourself, that will further save your hide. As with factories in China and elsewhere, developing and maintaining a good relationship is important.
4. Bangladeshi culture is very different from that of China, so don’t follow the same road map! Respect that, as a Muslim country, Fridays are taken off and that your factory may be understandably more sluggish during Ramadan.
5. Make sure to do inspections during production. Especially as prices are rising, there is obviously less room for error!

Any other ideas about sourcing from Bangladesh? Comment below!