Premium prices from international clothing retailers and brands have remained elusive for deserving local textile and apparel makers who have doled out extra money and efforts in setting up green buildings and adopting eco-friendly manufacturing practices.
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While Covid-19 dealt a body blow to Bangladesh s apparel industry last year, one fast-expanding segment fared surprisingly well: denim. The country now holds the top supplier spot for blue denim apparel to both the US and EU.
The South Asian country has been the largest exporter of jeans clothing to the European Union (including the UK) for the past few years, according to Eurostat data. But in 2020 it was also the largest overseas supplier of denim to the US by value, elbowing out Mexico, according to US trade data.
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Ananta Apparel and Universal Menswear two concerns of Ananta Group located in the Adamjee export processing zone in Narayanganj built green factories around four years ago.
The factories have adopted better waste disposal methods, low-carbon emission technologies, energy efficient appliances and many other technical know-hows in order to produce goods in an environment-friendly manner. An additional investment of 15 to 20 per cent was needed to set up the green factories compared to the funds required to build a traditional industrial unit, said Sharif Zahir, managing director of Ananta Group.