Even as Bangladesh, especially the country’s readymade garment industry, is facing container crisis, that has emerged as a major challenge for the exporters, the BGMEA, which is the apex garment makers’ body in Bangladesh, has voiced opinion in favour of direct vessel operations with Europe and the USA, the main apparel export destinations for the country.
This was maintained in media reports which added, along with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BFFA), combinedly reiterated their demand that the Ministry of Shipping take up an initiative to launch direct vessel operations with the above-mentioned export destinations from Chittagong Port so as to find a way out of the congestion at transhipment ports as well as vessel shortages that have hit exporters hard lately.
Recently the two bodies (BGMEA and BFFA) held a meeting at the port city Chittagong-based BGMEA Bhaban in which they also decided to work jointly to resolve the export snag even as the meeting specified a set of three recommendations to address the current situation – holding meetings with diplomats from major export destinations to find ways out of the existing crisis, holding a meeting with the buyers’ forum to influence shipping companies to increase the number of vessels and initiating measures to operate vessels directly between Chittagong Port and ports in Europe and USA.
