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Eid shoppers find a new destination in Kaliganj

SAJJADUR RAHMAN
When trendy youths run after jeans trousers from India, China and Thailand, a local market -- Kaliganj in Keraniganj upazila -- offers them wider choices, at cheaper rates.
Garment business at Kaliganj is thriving thanks to a poor demand for imported clothing items in the lead-up to this year's Eid.
The Kaliganj market has over the years become famous for produc-
ing jeans trousers, jackets, shirts and childrenwear.
There are around 22 markets
and 5,000 shops in the neighbourhood on the south of Dhaka. A few
lakh people are employed there --for stitching to dyeing, washing and trading.
“So far, the sales are good. In fact, it looks better than the previous years,” said Abdul Jalil of ShamimPant Fair.
Mohammad Shahin of Cousin Garments said he sold out most of his stock before Ramadan.
“Now I'm selling to retailers who arc coming from different districts of the country,” he said.
The factories in Kaliganj, located at Zinjira at the confluence of the Buriganga and Dhaleswari rivers, start making clothes four to five months before Eid, borrowing from banks to procure the fabrics needed.
“Chinese items, especially trousers, are not selling this year, so our business is doing well,” said Mohammad Ripon Miah, owner of Faisal Fashion.
One of the reasons for the lacklustre sales of the imported items is their higher prices than the local ones.
For instance, a pair of locally produced jeans trousers cost Tk 400 to Tk 800, while ones from China cost Tk 1,200 to Tk 2,000, according to traders.
The garment factories here gather
designs from China, India and Thailand and replicate them, said Ripon.
The markets in Kaliganj comprise by and large of wholesalers, and they register 30 percent of its annual sales, worth aroundTk 100 crore, just in the month of Ramadan.
Banks here also want a share of the pie, competing to lend for the bumper Eid business at 20-22 percent for duration of three to nine months.
“We've 600-700 clients at the Kaliganj market,” said Nurul Islam, manager of the BRAC Bank branch at Keraniganj, adding that the bank lends a minimum of Tk 3 lakh and maximum ofTk 10 lakh.
So booming is the business that the traders are confident they would easily be able to pay back the bank loans taken out to purchase the additional materials needed to cater to the huge demand for Eid.
“We have lent Tk 15-18 crore to
these businesses this season. Interestingly, many of them have already started paying hack the loan before the Ramadan ends,” said Islam, who in his six-year long tenure is witnessing early repayments for the first time this year.
Other hanks including Jamuna, AB, Prime and SIBL also have loan exposure in that market.
“We monitor strictly and we are doing well,” said the BRAC Bank official.
The factory owners too are glad to have the banks around, despite an interest rate of minimum 20 percent.
“Traditional usurers used to charge Tk 3,000 per month against a loan ofTk 1 lakh,” said Sohel Ahmed of Samrat Fashion at the market.
“We're benefiting from the bank loans.”
sajjad@thedailystar.net