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Printing industry in choppy waters

Suman Saha
The printing industry is going through choppy waters as sales of calendars, diaries, greeting cards and election posters have dropped significantly due to the ongoing political unrest.
"We have been passing a very tough time due to the volatile politics," said AFM Shah Alam, general secretary of Bangladesh Mudran Shilpa Samity (BMSS), a platform of printing entrepreneurs.
Sales of printing products, especially posters, calendars and diaries, typically shoot up in election years as candidates buy them in bulk to distribute in their constituency to drum up publicity for their campaigns.
" But this year has been exceptional."
Also the proprietor of Darpon Publication and Colour Printing, Alam said the industry usually gets around Tk 150 crore worth of orders during an electionyear.
But this time, the commissions have declined by as much as 95 percent, due to the main opposition party's refusal to participate in the tenth parlia-
mentary election scheduled for January 5. Around Tk 270 crore worth of calendars and dairies are sold in the country annually, said Nurul Akter, managing director of Helpline Resources Ltd, a leading printing product seller.
The company sold calendars and dairies worth around Tk 33 crore last year, but the amount has plummeted to Tk 13 crore this year, he said.
"We are in panic now,” said Abul Kalam Azad, chief executive of Azad Products, a major printing house, adding that November to January is the peak period for print- ing products such as calendars, diaries and greeting cards.
Keeping the election in mind, the company invested around Tk 8 crore this year on calendars and diaries, up from its usual Tk 2-3 crore. But the company's sales have plummeted by 75 percent.
Md Akram Hossain, managing director of Hossain Printers and Packagers (Pvt) Ltd, also spoke of sluggish business due to the volatile politics. The company sells Tk 10-12 crore worth of calendars annually, but this year it got orders for around Tk 8 crore.
Moreover, the non-stop blockades and shutdowns mean the company is unable to deliver the orders and collect the bills.
"We usually finish the delivery before December 20, but so far we have managed only 40 percent. As a result, we cannot collect our bills from the customers."
Apart from traditional diaries and calendars, the printing companies also provide letter pads, literatures and prescription pads to various pharmaceutical companies.
Sales of such products have come down by a half from Tk 175 crore during usual time, said Nurul Akter of Helpline Resources.
Pharmaceutical companies are not launching new products due to political uncertainties and their distribution network was disrupted amid strikes and blockades, he said.
The market size of printing, including textbooks, stands at around Tk 3,000 crore a year, according to the BMSS.
Around 7,000 printing companies, including small and medium enterprises, are in operation across the country, employing around two lakh directly and indirectly, according to the BMSS general secretary.