Bangladesh’s apparel exports to India are up by 115 per cent. Readymade garments constitute around 80 per cent of Bangladesh’s exports. The hiking of the import duty on 328 textile products, which is not applicable to Bangladesh, and the withdrawal of the 12 per cent countervailing duty on textiles after the introduction of GST helped increase the exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh to India.

Retailers like Reliance, Future Group, Aditya Birla Retail, Arvind Retail, Woodland are aggressively increasing their sourcing from Bangladesh. Reliance Retail sourced 60 lakh pieces of garments from Bangladesh last year. The target for Reliance Retail is to increase the same to one crore pieces this year. The company is looking for manufacturers that can offer 20 per cent of their capacity with over 600 machines. Only 15 per cent of Reliance Retail’s current sourcing — mainly in shirts, bottoms and fashion knits--comes from Bangladesh.

The wide opportunities Bangladesh presents to Indian retailers are largely underutilised. For some retailers, the key product is bottom wear. However, shirts, jackets, knits, suits and lingerie are potential products which too can be sourced very competitively from Bangladesh. Today Bangladesh is second only to China in the global apparel sourcing business matrix. After capturing the markets of the west, the country is looking at developing new markets, among which India is the most important.