Textile Focus presents Industry Opinion powered by US Cotton Trust Protocol Episode-19: “Testing, Certification, and Inspection in Textile Industry.” Team Textile Focus received feedback from industry experts in Testing and inspection services.
Dr. Karthik ND, Regional Managing Director- South Asia, Eurofins Product Testing India Pvt. Ltd.
The industry’s growth would never happen without the partnership of independent third-party testing inspection and certification agencies. They help manufacturers, brands, and buying offices by ensuring the products meet the correct quality and compliance requirements in testing and reviews. At the same time, this has helped in very much of cost competitiveness for avoiding the cost of poor quality for the manufacturers and exporters. But most of the time, the industry realizes this after some untoward incident. Then they realize this should have been done before they end up in a disastrous situation. So that is where a proactive approach in terms of whatever we do eat planning in terms of a production facility. Now the manufacturers have moved into green factories with the highest rated criteria, a proactive approach much ahead of most factories and production facilities in many other countries. Also, Bangladesh has created an example by approaching best-in-class infrastructure. Similarly, earlier days of productivity and efficiency have now drastically improved quality. There has been a significant improvement in meeting qualities, and the role of testing and inspection agencies has contributed towards achieving the right first time.
Abdur Rashid, Country Business Manager, SGS Bangladesh Limited
In terms of business and industry situation, we had a solid year in 2021 and 2022. Still, in 2023, we see quite a challenge here, not only in Bangladesh but also globally, considering the US, considering Ukraine Russia war impact. Also, the covid-19 impact has expected global rescission, currency devaluation in Bangladesh, and foreign currency reduction, and being an election year altogether. We see Bangladesh’s economy is facing quite a tough time in 2023. We also started slowly in January, February, and March, and for most of the industry owners, productions, and service industry, everybody is having a bit of a tough time. But the good news is that everybody is getting used to the struggles and challenges, and we also see quite a good indication like currency is not devaluating anymore, commodity price has decreased globally, fuel price has decreased, as well as our remittance has increased all these giving us quite good relief to our economy. We also see many positive environments in the business climate. Big retailers and buyers using their stock products have started placing orders with our manufacturers. Also, we are contributing through our many value-added services to the industry. We have state-of-the-art modern laboratories with very experienced inspectors and auditors, and regularly, we innovate and automate our services.
Engr. Syed Tasnem Mahmood, CEO, GREENBUD
All these years, the local and international testing service providers have worked with glory. Because of the price difference with the global testing company, some local companies have started providing testing and inspection services that maintain international standards. They work with textile and garment manufacturing companies and perform testing and inspection services. Recently we have seen that Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB) has accredited some local and international testing and inspection companies, and they are maintaining their service quality very well. Environmental testing and inspection services should be addressed in some cases. That’s because some companies do not maintain quality in testing and inspection services. This kind of service pushes us to face questions regarding our service quality in the internal marketplace and towards buyers. In that case, the textile and garments industries should work with the testing and inspection service companies that maintain quality according to international standards and fill up the Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB) requirements. It is good that our clients are doing so.
