By Madhusha Thavapalakumar
With less than a month left to conclude the year, the Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters’ Association (SLAEA) expects the country’s apparel export revenue to be around $ 4 billion for the year 2020, compared to $ 5.59 billion, a year ago.
SLAEA Immediate Past Chairman Rehan Lakhany told The Sunday Morning Business that this is approximately a 30% year-on-year drop, and it is mainly due to the local outbreak of the pandemic and disruptions in the export market driven by Covid-19.
“As of September, apparel exports were $ 3.28 billion. Apparel exports for the month of September were $ 433 million compared to $ 455 million the same month last year. We expect a year-on-year dip in exports in October, November, and December also,” Lakhany stated.
Speaking further, he noted that following the initial outbreak of the virus in Sri Lanka in March and subsequent islandwide lockdown, apparel activities slowly resumed in May. However, manufacturing activities slowed down following the detection of the Minuwangoda cluster in early October, the impact of which still prevails in society with Covid-19 cases being reported in the hundreds, daily.
In early April, speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Chairman A. Sukumaran stated that the apparel sector had been severely impacted due to the prevailing pandemic, with JAAF foreseeing an immediate contraction of $ 1. 5 billion in Sri Lankan apparel exports during the three-month period ending in June compared to the previous fiscal year. He added that they expect further demand contractions that could result in reductions in apparel exports by an additional 30-40% after June in their best-case scenario.
On 4 October, health authorities detected a Covid-19 case in the community for the first time in about two months – an apparel factory worker from the Gampaha District attached to Brandix Apparel Solutions Ltd. in Minuwangoda. Subsequent PCR tests conducted on the patient’s close contacts detected the largest cluster found in Sri Lanka, and the cluster mainly consisted of the workers who worked in the same apparel factory.
Following this, the social stigma surrounding apparel workers too was expected to have an impact on the apparel sector, as noted by both Lakhany and Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL) Secretary General Tuli Cooray at that point.
In addition to this, most of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector depend on fabrics and accessories supplied from China and the disruption of the supply chain due to the global outbreak of the virus affected the exporters severely in the first half of this year.
SLAEA Immediate Past Chairman Rehan Lakhany told The Sunday Morning Business that this is approximately a 30% year-on-year drop, and it is mainly due to the local outbreak of the pandemic and disruptions in the export market driven by Covid-19.
“As of September, apparel exports were $ 3.28 billion. Apparel exports for the month of September were $ 433 million compared to $ 455 million the same month last year. We expect a year-on-year dip in exports in October, November, and December also,” Lakhany stated.
Speaking further, he noted that following the initial outbreak of the virus in Sri Lanka in March and subsequent islandwide lockdown, apparel activities slowly resumed in May. However, manufacturing activities slowed down following the detection of the Minuwangoda cluster in early October, the impact of which still prevails in society with Covid-19 cases being reported in the hundreds, daily.
In early April, speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Chairman A. Sukumaran stated that the apparel sector had been severely impacted due to the prevailing pandemic, with JAAF foreseeing an immediate contraction of $ 1. 5 billion in Sri Lankan apparel exports during the three-month period ending in June compared to the previous fiscal year. He added that they expect further demand contractions that could result in reductions in apparel exports by an additional 30-40% after June in their best-case scenario.
On 4 October, health authorities detected a Covid-19 case in the community for the first time in about two months – an apparel factory worker from the Gampaha District attached to Brandix Apparel Solutions Ltd. in Minuwangoda. Subsequent PCR tests conducted on the patient’s close contacts detected the largest cluster found in Sri Lanka, and the cluster mainly consisted of the workers who worked in the same apparel factory.
Following this, the social stigma surrounding apparel workers too was expected to have an impact on the apparel sector, as noted by both Lakhany and Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL) Secretary General Tuli Cooray at that point.
In addition to this, most of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector depend on fabrics and accessories supplied from China and the disruption of the supply chain due to the global outbreak of the virus affected the exporters severely in the first half of this year.