12,000 handlooms closed as yarn prices double

A weaver with her idle handloom at a village in Kushtia. She is jobless like many others in the district as yarn prices have double in a year. PHOTO: STAR

Weavers said cotton yarn prices almost doubled in one year but prices of handloom products including sarre, lunghi and gmcha did not rise.

Price of a bale of 40-count yarn rose to Tk 25,000 from Tk 22,000 in January last year. It soared to Tk 27,000 in September and to Tk 38,000 in January this year.

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A bale of 40-count cotton yarn is now sold at between Tk 38,000 and 42,000, in open market, which small handloom weavers can not afford to utilise, they said.

Many weavers this correspondent talked to said they have been compelled to close their looms as cost of production soared. Their products can not compete in markets now, they said.

"I incurred loss after buying yarn at so high rate", said Rekha Khatun at Bakharba village in Sailkupa upazila in Jhenidah during a recent visit. The two handlooms installed at her house are now silent.

The same view was shared by other weavers at Panti village in Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia, known for having the largest number of handlooms in southwestern districts. There are at least 15000 small handloom units in Kushtia.

"Price of a white bundle of yarn (about one kilogram) has increased by Tk 70 to Tk 100 but prices of our products like saree, lungi and gamchha have not increased", said Hashem Ali, a waver at Panti village, 25 kilometres from Kushtia town.

Giving an estimate, he said three pieces of lungi or two sarees or seven pieces of gamchha can be produced from one bundle of coloured yarn and one bundle of white yarn, which together costs Tk 450. Three pieces of lungi thus produced can be sold at between Tk 350 and Tk 400, two sarees at around Tk 400 and seven pieces of gamchha at Tk 350.

"Moreover I have to borrow the small working capital from a creditor at a high interest", Hashem said.

The wavers said increase in yarn prices three times in a year is abnormal, not seen before.

According to source, there are at least 41,000 handloom units in the five districts of Jhenidah, Magura, Chuadanga, Meherpur and Kushtia.

Most of the handloom factories are in Sailkupa, Garaganj, Kaliganj, Moheshpur and Harinakundu in Jhenidah district; Sadar, Shripur, Salikha and Mohammadpur in Magura; Gangni in Meherpur; Alamdanga and Jibannagar in Chuadanga and Daulatpur, Khoksa and Kumarkhali in Kushtia.

Bangladesh Handloom Board, a government agency, looked after these factories through its several 'basic centers' in Kushtia and Jhenidah.

When contacted, its officials admitted the price hike.

Sources said that yarn prices increased because its import is banned through land port and increase in the value of dollar.

Some officials at Garaganj 'basic centre' in Jhenidah said they disbursed Tk 1.47 lakh loans among weavers in Jhenidah under a micro credit programme last year and more Tk 50 lakh will be disbursed this year.

The officials said handloom wavers' main problem is that they do not have any assured market for their products due to high production cost.