On a 22 June deadline, the Finacial Express reports on recent US garment sourcing trends:
Monira Munni | June 22, 2014
"About 60 per cent of the surveyed respondents say they expect to somewhat increase sourcing from Bangladesh in the next two years and five per cent expect to strongly increase sourcing," said the study jointly conducted by the United States Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) and the University of Rhode Island (URI).
Another 15 per cent expect no change in their current scale of sourcing in Bangladesh. Currently, 76.9 per cent of respondents source from Bangladesh.
Companies are committed to compliance in general, with the vast majority of respondents (86 per cent) supporting the inclusion of environmental and labor clauses in future free trade agreements or preference programmes between the United States and its trading partners, the study said.
"We surmise this reflects companies' commitments to improving factory safety and compliance in Bangladesh, and building a long-term relationship with local suppliers," said a statement issued by the USFIA.
"Companies are not leaving Bangladesh and are committed to Bangladesh," it added.
Julia K. Hughes, President of the USFIA, said "This data not only provides useful insight for the broader industry, but will also help the association focus our advocacy activities as we continue to work to eliminate the tariff and non-tariff barriers that impact fashion companies doing business globally."
The study found that the majority of respondents (89 per cent) are optimistic about the five-year outlook for the US fashion industry but at the same time 81 per cent of respondents are worried about rising costs but expect only moderate cost increases in 2014.
The other key findings included that China will remain the dominant supplier though Vietnam and Asia as a whole are seen as having more growth potential.
Vietnam is the second-largest sourcing base for respondents, with nearly 90 percent of respondents currently sourcing from the southeast Asian nation. Indonesia, Cambodia, and Bangladesh also rank highly.