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Mixed experienceShoe factory owners in Bhairab, Kishoreganj, in a Protidiner Bangladesh report

No chemicals, six days of Ramadan idle, and hand output down by half

A shortage of imported chemicals shut 10-12 shoe factories in Bhairab. Handmade output fell from 20-24 pairs a day to 10-12, and orders halved.

In March 2024 a shortage of imported chemicals halted shoe production in Bhairab, Kishoreganj, just as the Ramadan and Eid season opened. One PU footwear factory there had been shut for more than a week; the chemical traders kept saying supply was two days away without naming a date. The first ten days of Ramadan are normally when Eid stock is built, but six of them had gone with the machines off and the workers sitting idle, and the owner expected heavy losses on the season. Only makers holding stockpiled chemicals kept running. Hand-made work continued at about half the normal rate, 10-12 pairs a day against 20-24, while prices rose 50-100 taka a pair and wholesale and retail orders halved. Bhairab has about 42 PU footwear factories and 3,000-4,000 small and large units, employing roughly 50,000 women and 100,000 men.

Lessons

  1. 1.Depending on one imported input stops the factory the day supply stops: only the owners with chemicals stockpiled kept running
  2. 2.In a seasonal trade lost days never come back: stock not built in the ten days before Eid cannot be made up over the rest of the year

Published with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.

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