Islampur wholesalers not so cheery ahead of Eid

The country's largest wholesale fabric market Islampur did not get expected buyers till 10th Ramadan, according to traders, as hopes for recovering losses in the last two Eid seasons are fading away.     

Traders said this year's sales so far are less than half the regular Eid sales, and the turnover will be at best 60%-65% of pre-Covid sales if the slump continues. This means if the traders' sales in regular time was Tk100, it would be Tk65 this season.

Starting one week before Shab-e-Barat, Islampur Eid sales had been promising till the beginning of Ramadan, and it dropped subsequently as retailers could not sell out the products they had taken already.

Islampur textile sellers now hope people will flock to shopping malls after 15th Ramadan, sending more wholesale orders to Islampur.       

"Sales have been dull since the beginning of Ramadan," Nesar Uddin, general secretary of the Bangladesh Cloth Merchant Association, told The Business Standard.

"If the increased Eid sales continued for ten more days, we would be able to counter the pandemic fallout," he added, hoping customers might rush for Eid shopping at the last moments.      

According to the association, there are more than 6,500 showrooms in around 95 markets at Islampur – situated in old Dhaka on the bank of Buriganga. If the small roadside makeshift shops are considered, the number will exceed 10,000. Around 60,000-70,000 people work in those shops.

Eid-ul-Fitr covers around 60% of the market's annual business, but the pandemic ate up their sales for the last two consecutive years. The peak season usually starts ten days before the Sab-e-Barat and continues until the second week of Ramadan.

"As a big trader at the wholesale hub, we have sold 80%-90% products that were made on the occasion of Eid. However, the turnover is not the same for other small showrooms," Pakiza Fabrics Collection's In-Charge Didarul Islam told TBS.

"Even, we could not stock enough clothes this season compared to the pre-Covid period thanks to spiked rates of fabrics. Per yard fabric is now Tk63, which was at Tk52-53 last year," he said, adding that many retailers who collect the clothes from Islampur are in doubt whether they would be able to sell the clothes eventually after buying those at higher rates.

Pakiza has around 15 outlets in Islampur where all kinds of textile and women's wear are available.

"Paddy harvesting is yet to begin in many areas of the country. Once the farmers harvest the crop, they will have cash for Eid shopping," said Md Jaman, who runs a fashion house in Rangpur and usually collects the textiles and dresses from Islampur's Pakiza.

For Islampur traders, Eid sales are the lifeblood of their business. They have brought out their unsold Eid stocks of the last two years.

"We do not even have enough time to talk to the reporters during Eid sales. But this Ramadan is an exception," said Delwar Hossain, manager of New Trina Enterprise at Lion Tower of Islampur.

Mentioning that each showroom costs Tk1 lakh in monthly rent, he said, "It is difficult for the owners to survive if the Eid season goes dull."

Rafiqul Islam, manager of Hero Textiles at S Nahar Mansion, said, "Regular and good business mean sales of 40,000 yards of clothe a day, which is now only 20,000 yards."

Islampur market meets 60% of the demand for locally made clothes and 40% demand for imported fabrics. The wholesale hub is also popular for Zakat clothes, a form of almsgiving treated in Islam as a religious obligation.

Factories in Narayanganj, Narsingdi, Tangail and Keraniganj produce the cloth for Islampur traders.

Bangladesh Cloth Merchants Association President Shamsul Alam said, "The Eid-al-Fitr sales of Islampur hover around Tk10,000 crore in normal time. But the market lost almost all sales in 2020, and sales did not exceed more than Tk3,000 crore last year."

Nesar Uddin, general secretary of the association, said the pandemic drove away many of the traders from the business.

Meanwhile, both the owners and workers said that there is no uncertainty over salary and Eid bonuses this year.