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establish a sewing thread unit in Tongi a few years ago to produce 70 tonnes of thread a month.

Nearly 200 manufacturers are engaged in producing sewing thread for export-oriented garment factories, but few of them dominate the market, said Abul Quasem Haider, president of the Bangladesh Sewing Thread Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

Local manufacturers can supply more than 90 per cent of cotton-made sewing thread. But in the case of the synthetic-made thread, they can cater 70 per cent of the demand, and the remaining 30 per cent comes from imports, mainly from China.

More than 100 small and medium-sized mills serve the local sewing thread market.