Shirts, trousers, jackets, T-shirts and sweaters contribute 75 per cent to Bangladesh’s apparel exports. But during the last fiscal only the sweater segment maintained an upward trend in earnings. Earnings grew by 5.62 per cent. Earnings from shirts declined nine per cent, trousers fell by 4.62 per cent, jackets fell by 6.02 per cent and T-shirts fell by 4.19 per cent.

Among the reasons for the fall in exports are rising production costs, currency fluctuation and a decline in global demand. But a critical factor is sweater units are automated. Prices of sweaters dropped and customers placed more orders in the jacquard category. An automated jacquard machine is not only able to produce diversified and fashionable products, but can also fabricate critical designs.

As for other categories like shirts and T-shirts, they were already competitive and therefore there was no further margin to compromise on.
Bangladesh has more than 500 sweater factories in operation and nearly 60 per cent of these have switched over to automation to ramp up productivity. A manual machine with one operator can produce a maximum of five pieces a day. An automatic machine with one operator can produce about 30 pieces a day. Many owners have opted for automatic machines to remain cost competitive in the long run.