During the intense heatwave that has ravaged the nation since the beginning of April, garment exporters have gone above and beyond to guarantee the presence of workers in factories and the prompt dispatch of goods.
To retain efficiency, several factory owners are giving their employees saline water, cutting short work shifts, and educating them about health issues.
Neither a significant casualty nor a loss of production have occurred thus far, and no incidents resulting from a lack of personnel or late shipments have been reported.
According to Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), productivity and goods shipment have not yet shown any detrimental effects.
Conversely, he claimed that because they don’t have any appliance at home that can keep them cool, workers feel more at ease at workplaces.
According to Md. Nasir Uddin, vice-president of the BGMEA, several factories provide their employees with lemon juice to reduce the danger of dehydration. He continued by saying that because worker presence is still high, productivity in manufacturing is unaffected.
Currently, garment exporters are catering to work orders for the spring season in the Western world. They have booked many work orders from buyers due to the recovery of the global supply chain from the severe fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
The largest retail platform in the United States, the National Retail Federation (NRF), recently released a statement stating that core retail sales, which do not include restaurants, cars, or petrol, increased by 2.92 per cent year over year and by 0.23 per cent month over month in March according to Retail Monitor data.
According to the NRF, based on the first 28 days of February, there were rises of 0.27 per cent month-over-month and 2.99 per cent year-over-year in February.
A few months ago, exporters stated that Bangladesh’s garment exports, which struggled to perform strongly in the outgoing year due to a worldwide economic recession, may see a moderate rise of 7 to 10 per cent in 2024.