The international apparel retailers yesterday demanded quick delivery of garment samples from the Dhaka airport to the factories to reduce the prolonged lead-time in shipment of goods abroad.

The buyers placed the demand at their regular forum meeting with the apparel manufacturers in Dhaka.

Representatives of nearly 20 global retailers which directly or indirectly purchase around $ 10 billion worth of garment items from Bangladesh attended the meeting, said Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The garment makers highly rely on samples sent by the international retailers to produce apparel items.

"Delayed delivery of samples from the airport in Dhaka is a concern not only for the international retailers, but also for us and for the country,” said Babu, who represented the manufacturers at the meeting.The retailers and the manufacturers have long been complaining about the incidents of missing and delayed delivery of samples from the airport, but the services at the airport are still poor, he said.

The service quality at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka has improved a bit in recent times, but this is not enough to satisfy the international customers like the garment retailers, he said.

The garment makers complain that sometimes it takes nearly 10 days to deliver the apparel samples from the airport whereas it was supposed to be delivered within one or two days of arrival from abroad.

The retailers also queried about the tripartite agreement that was signed last week among the government, union leaders and factory owners to give legal support to the workers and unionists arrested during Ashulia unrest in December last year.

The deal was signed on the eve of the second Apparel Summit as five top apparel buyers—H&M, Inditex (Zara), C&A, Next and Tchibo—refused to

participate in the event in Dhaka last week, protesting the arrest. However, they finally took part in the event.

Babu, however, said the signatories of the deal will discuss the progress of Ashulia incident, as one of the top bosses of IndustriALL—the global rights group and one of the signatories of the agreement—will come to Dhaka next week.

At the meeting, the retailers were informed that the garment makers will not follow the additional standards the engineers of Accord are now trying to apply during the factory inspections in Bangladesh, Babu said.

Only the codes of Accord and Bangladesh government will be followed, the apparel makers told the retailers which are also members of the European factory inspection agency Accord.

The buyers declined to comment on the outcomes of the meeting.

"The buyers' forum is an informal meeting platform for brands. We don't share what is being discussed," a retailer who participated in the meeting said.