Bangladesh’s handloom sector, which is the oldest and largest cottage-based industry in the country, is struggling to survive with the number of handloom units registering a sharp fall.
The fall is mainly owing to shift towards mechanisation, increase in raw material prices, continuous growth of powerlooms and entry of smuggled cheap and low-quality Indian saris over the last few decades.
And the experts are of the opinion that if the Government could overcome these problems, the country’s handloom market may receive a boost.
They said a mindset about the country’s heritage products should be created among the people, indigenous culture should be given preference and foreign culture and products should not be accepted, only then can the local industry survive.
Bangladesh Planning Minister MA Mannan recently said his Government attaches much importance to the promising handloom sector as a heritage of the country and to protect the heritage sector, several projects have been taken up by the Bangladesh Handloom Board.
“I will request the ministry concerned to allocate more funds for the SME sector so that entrepreneurs can overcome the problem of capital shortage,” Mannan said, adding that the Government was looking into the sector’s problems.
