Every crisis offers an opportunity, so did COVID-19! The pandemic opened the floodgates as far as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is concerned as PPE market is all set to hit US $ 231,630.4 million by 2028 growing at a CAGR of 7.6 per cent.
With the world still continuing to grapple with the pandemic’s ramifications— lingering of the COVID-19 and its multiple variants emerging and spreading across continents — the demand for medical and personal protection equipment (MPPE) keeps rising world over.
Bangladesh seems to have sensed the opportunity early on and upped the ante to cash in on the opportunities since the initial days of the pandemic.
At least 30 factories started manufacturing PPE since the start of the pandemic and the number is growing, claimed earlier BGMEA spokesperson Monirul Alam Shuvo, adding companies which had already made protective clothing on a limited scale, quickly scaled up capacities to meet the demand.
“Just three days ago, we got an export order to make 20 million surgical gowns. All our factories are now booked for the entire year,” said Fakir Apparels Director Mashiur Rahman Shommo, who turned five of his factories into PPE plants as the Western clients came calling in face of the initial onslaught of the pandemic.
Already facing hardships as orders from global retailers hit a hurdle owing to the pandemic, many Bangladeshi garment factories got a new lifeline with orders to make protective masks, gloves and gowns for export as the trend continued to gain momentum.
Take for example Rose Garden Apparels Limited, the knit garment manufacturer and exporter, which went for PPE manufacturing and direct export having received demand letters from four countries– USA, Kuwait, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
The company had witnessed a loss of around US $ 1,40,000 due to order cancellations on account of the pandemic before resorting to PPE-making to salvage the fledgling business.
“We got projection of around 6 lakh pieces for Brazil market,” claimed the company’s Director Jubaer Hossain Asif, while adding the industry as a whole was getting lot of PPE enquiries from world over.
Amongst the established names to take on PPE-making actively was also the renowned Bangladesh business conglomerate Beximco.
“In just two months, we unleashed our world-class manufacturing, technical and design talent to switch over and start making PPE and help increase the supply of PPE…,” said Beximco CEO and Group Director Syed Naved Husain adding Bangladesh was well positioned to become a new hub for PPE manufacturing and it did even as the country earned at least Taka 4,500 crore from PPE export to 71 countries within the first few months amidst reports of many receiving large orders for all types of PPEs from European and American buyers.
Beximco, with its diverse business interests including apparel manufacturing and export, pivoted from producing garments to protective equipment within a matter of weeks at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, learning the specialised fabrication techniques, setting up production lines and producing 6.5 million gowns for distribution to the United States through the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The efforts of Beximco helped Bangladesh to join the select group of countries that manufacture world-class, large-scale PPE by shipping 6.5 million PPE gowns to American brand Hanes for ultimate delivery to FEMA.
This even led the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to laud Bangladesh’s efforts in helping USA in this crucial time.
“I join @USAmbBangladesh in congratulating Bangladesh for this significant milestone. International partnerships like these are crucial as companies focus their production on supplying the PPE needed by frontline workers around the world. #COVID19,” Pompeo said in a tweet even as State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md.Shahriar Alam, on his part maintained: “It’s remarkable to see that within this short span of two months, Bangladesh was able to foray into this very regulated market with such a sensitive healthcare product…”
Given the prospects in PPE manufacturing and exports, Bangladesh Government has now assured all possible assistance even as Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on his part pledged wholehearted commitment by way of enabling policies and regulations to support healthy growth of MPPE sub-sector even as Bangladesh, to popularise PPE, has been offering duty exemption on taxes for raw material imports.
Meanwhile, Deloitte has identified 12 MPPE products that bear high potential for development, which are namely isolation gowns, coverall suits, masks (including surgical kn95 and n95), shoe cover and head cover, gloves, protective spectacle, face shields, hand sanitisers, bed linen, towel, melt-blown fabric and nursing pad even as CEO of BUILD — Business Initiate Leading Development or BUILD is the first ever national public-private dialogue platform to promote private-sector development through policy reforms — Ferdaus Ara Begum noted Bangladesh is already making progress in the MPPE sector, especially in 12 products, including eight WHO-listed ones while adding the country’s garment sector was the first to focus on the MPPE segment.
“Bangladesh needed to develop the MPPE industry in a strategic manner by setting targets, extending right kinds of incentives, ensuring public-private cooperation and following up closely on the progress and constraints,” stated Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh even as BGMEA President Faruque Hassan stressed on the need for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) for further growth of the MPPE sub-sector while also calling for strengthening collaboration with the regulatory bodies, technical know-how and robust backward linkage industries.
Meanwhile, as per a recent study, Bangladesh not only holds the capacity of producing 12 MPP products (as mentioned by Deloitte) for domestic and global markets, but more than 50 firms in the country have already obtained clearance from the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA), for making surgical masks, sanitisers and coveralls/PPE gowns.
However, given the highly regulated and stringent quality requirements of the products in international markets, relevant authorities must ensure compliance with respect of quality, pre-testing and observance of other protocols, underlined the study even as the BUILD CEO added, “…MPPE products are highly regulated with stringent quality requirements.”
It was just a matter of time that global names in testing and regulation stepped in to help develop the PPE segment.
“As a purpose-led company, Intertek’s mission is to make the world a better and safer place by bringing in quality, safety and sustainability to life. That is why we are extending our partnership with Beximco by establishing a new state-of-the-art centre of excellence to ensure its vital PPE products are able to meet the highest risk-based quality assurance standards,” maintained the CEO of Intertek André Lacroix even if speaking to Apparel Resources (AR), Sandeep Das, Regional Managing Director – South Asia at Intertek said Bangladesh has exported face masks worth about US $ 100 million since the Coronavirus outbreak.
It may be mentioned here BEXIMCO and Intertek collaborated to come up with a massive PPE Park, inaugurating which, Syed Naved Husain underlined since all the services will be available under one roof encompassing American, European and other global regulatory standards, the new facility (PPE Park) will help the buyers, brands, manufacturers, retailers and the Government with required services since all the services will be available under one roof.
He further added the park will serve both international and domestic markets and is aimed at increasing the diversity of the supply of PPE, ensuring that it is not totally dependent on any one country.
“We have taken proactive initiatives by setting up the PPE Center of Excellence as a one-stop solution centre. Now, we can support customers for CE Marking, FDA registration and can offer a shorter turnaround time (4-10 days) for lab test. We are also providing technical assistance to our customers with local and global experts,” claimed Sandeep even as he added as a new sector, challenges are there while underlining although Bangladesh is new in this segment, professionals in the field are learning the latest technology and moving ahead.
Earlier, the DGDA also enlisted Dysin Group’s Testing and Calibration Laboratory for testing of PPE products related to COVID-19. The new facility has also been established to help the new Bangladeshi manufacturers with the sample testing and quality testing and eliminate any hindrance in the process of PPE manufacturing and supply.
“So far, this new sector has progressed significantly, invested a lot, resolving various challenges and obstacles…,” underlined Sandeep even as stakeholders maintained with the Bangladesh Government actively supporting this growing sector with various benefits and support including financial grants, it is just a matter of time that the country stamps its dominance in MPEE segment as well.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
