RAJSHAHI, Aug 21: The local silk industry has incurred loss worth Tk 300 crore due to the impact of corona pandemic.
The industry is now facing existential crisis here.
Sources said due to two-month-long lockdown centring the corona pandemic, the silk sector has faced this huge loss.
Though the showrooms of silk clothes are open, the sale has declined by half. With the sale-deficit, productions in the factories have also fallen drastically. The silk-clothe manufacturers are suffering in paying their employees' salaries.
Trading sources said, without government help, the industry will lose existence.
A few companies in Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj are manufacturing clothes in their factories and marketing those. Other factories are not making clothes but cloths only. Producing cloths, they are marketing those in different areas of the country.
Ten years back, 15 companies would manufacture clothes in own factories. Now only four to five companies are doing so.
During the lockdown, silk factories and showrooms remained closed from March 26 to April 12. Before Eid-ul-Fitr, the showrooms were opened partially, but the sales were dull.
After the withdrawal of the lockdown on May 31, the showrooms and factories were reopened, but the sales did not gain momentum.
Sapura Silk Industries in Sapura area of the city has been producing silk clothes and marketing those since 1979. It produces silk yarns and manufacture clothes. But its produced yarns are not enough for meeting the demand. So, the factory has to import yarn from China.
Sapura Silk Industries Director Sazzad Ali said, before the lockdown, the factory and the showroom were running round the clock. But after the lockdown, the showroom is remaining open from 10am to 7pm, and the factory is running from 8am to 4pm.
He also said, during the lockdown, he paid salaries along with Eid bonus to 300 employees and labourers. Though the factory and the showroom could not be fully opened, he is still paying full salaries to the employees.
Despite the fall of sales by one-fourth than the usual times, no employees have been retrenched, he added.
He pointed out that he had incurred Tk 3 crore losses during the lockdown, but still he has kept the factory and the showroom open.
He informed, all the companies that manufacture and market silk products have been running with losses for the last ten years. Failing to stay on the track, many have laid off their factories. Now the coronavirus has put the rest in existential crisis.
Usha Silk Industries Manager Jahirul Islam said their sales rise on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh and two Eids. But due to coronavirus, he incurred Tk 50 lakh losses during the last Pahela Baishakh. Besides, he could not even sell products worth Tk 50,000 daily during the last two Eids, but he had sold products worth several lakhs taka during the Eids before.
He pointed out that he suffered losses worth about Tk 2 crore centring the coronavirus lockdown, but still he paid full salaries to the employees and the labourers.
The same picture prevails in other silk showrooms of Rajshahi. All are counting losses.
Bangladesh Sericulture Development Board (BSDB), which governs the country's silk industry, is also running amid financial and manpower crises. They can meet up the least demand of the country's silk products. Rather, the private factories are meeting the demand.
Taking yarns from 12 mini-filatures under BSDB across the country, cloths are produced in the factories. The manufactured cloths are displayed in the BSDB's showrooms.
After being off for a long time, 38 looms at Rajshahi silk factories have been repaired for running again.
BSDB sources said, in 2019-2020 fiscal year, 4,770 metres of cloths were produced using the yarns from the 12 mini-filatures. Despite closure during the lockdown, the factories produced 400 metres of cloths in July last.
Rajshahi Silk Factory Manager Abul Kalam Azad said after producing cloths with the yarns of 12 mini-filatures, these are sold through the BSDB's showrooms.
President of Bangladesh Silk Industry Owners Association Liakat Ali said the silk industry works in two stages. Yarn from insect is produced in one stage while cloths are manufactured from the yarns in another stage. About 40,000 employees and labourers are engaged with this industry only in Rajshahi region.
He also said thousands of labourers are engaged in yarn production. But these labourers have become jobless due to the coronavirus.
He added that government assistance in necessary to save the industry.
