Nazmul Hasan, Narsingdi

Textile industry owners in Madhabadi Upazila under Narsingdi district are in crisis due to the continuous rise in yarn prices.

Not only the price of yarn, the main raw material for the production of gray cloth, but also the prices of textile machine parts and other accessories have gone up. Although the cost of production has increased, the price of cloth has not increased in comparison. Besides, due to corona, there is not much demand for cloth in the country's market and piles of gray cloth are being stored in the factory. Many are thinking of shutting down the textile industry due to continuing losses. At the same time, thousands of workers are at risk of becoming unemployed.

Talking to the textile industry owners, it was learned that there are more than 6,000 textile industries in the industrial area of Madhabadi. Narsingdi and the adjoining Narayanganj produce about 90 per cent of the country's demand. Of these, 75 per cent gray cloth is produced in Madhabadi alone. According to the textile demand of the region, yarn is traded in the industrial city of Madhabadi. Although the yarn market is volatile day after day, there is no authority to control it. In the last 6 to 8 months, the price of most yarns has almost doubled.

Owners of the textile industry have complained that the price of yarn has risen by about Tk 15 per pound in the last one week. You have to pay 14 to 15 thousand rupees more to buy a sack of yarn. Although the production cost of cloth per yard has increased by about 3 rupees, the desired price of cloth is not matching in the market. Much of the price control of the Madhabadi yarn market is in the hands of a few of the top businesses here. Among them are Anand Yarn Trading, Modern Yarn Trading, Enayet Traders, Ekta Traders, Hawk Traders, Sajib Traders and Banani Traders.

Madhabadi market can be seen, SN, Hamza, Zakia, SA, MAH, Mukta, Sabed Ali, Comilla, Little Star etc. On Thursday, the current price of yarn for these brands is 70 counts per pound at Rs. , 20 count 130 rupees. Even a month ago, the price was around 35 to 45 rupees per pound.

Textile owners have largely blamed the government's lack of oversight for the unbridled rise in yarn prices. They said the country's top textile supplier was destabilizing the market by creating an artificial yarn crisis in the market through a syndicate of some very lucrative traders due to lack of surveillance by the concerned government departments and lack of fixed prices on the products.

Gazi Shafiqul Islam, owner of AS Textile Mill in Manoharpur, Madhabadi, said many people were only running night shift mills due to instability in the yarn market. If the market price of yarn continues, it will have to be stopped. Many workers will be unemployed. In this situation, to save the textile industry, he demanded that the administration should introduce price writing on yarn packets along with market monitoring.

Dolan Saha, another industrial owner, said the country's ready-made garment industry owners are getting various benefits, including the opportunity to import yarn from abroad through bonds. Many of these garment industry owners also have spinning mills. Although they themselves enjoy duty-free access, they are the main obstacle for textile owners to get government benefits in importing yarn. As a result, textile owners have to pay 37 per cent duty on yarn imports. So you have to buy yarn from the country. And the owners of these privileged spinning mills take advantage of this opportunity.

He further said that if the price of cotton in the international market ever goes up by 20 cents per kg, the owners of spinning mills in our country are increasing it by Rs 20 per pound. In this situation, the textile owners should be given the opportunity to import yarn under the duty free facility of the government.

Utpal Saha, owner of Sajib Traders, denied the allegation of raising the price of yarn through the syndicate. In a competitive market, every trader wants to retain customers with maximum benefits, there is no question of syndicating.

He said the demand for yarn in Madhabadi is around 2,500 tonnes a week, adding that the demand is increasing day by day, but there is no production of yarn compared to that. However, with the arrival of new cotton spinning mills imported from abroad in mid-November, the market will stabilize a lot.

Abdullah Al Mamun, vice-president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association and former president of the Narsingdi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said spinning mill owners are increasingly turning to export-oriented yarn as it is more profitable for export-oriented yarn than conventional yarn in the country's market. As a result, the crisis is increasing due to insufficient production of yarn in the country. At the same time, there is a crisis in the market due to the tendency of some rich people to buy and store extra yarn. But this crisis must be resolved quickly.