UK: Inaccurate claims sap apparel industry confidence

UK: Inaccurate claims sap apparel industry confidence
26 March 2009 Source: just-style.com

Garment factory owners, government ministers and union activists are making increasingly exaggerated claims of falling sales, which are undermining industry confidence a leading industry consultant claims.

Examples in the latest issue of The Source - a monthly review of the international apparel trade - include:

• The Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau revealingthe country's clothing exports had grown 17.6% in January - just weeks after the head of the country's apparel trade association had confidently asserted January exports were 5% down.

• A Guatemalan trade association leader reportedly claiming that 30% of garment workers had lost their jobs in just one month. He was actually saying 30% of the industry's workers might lose their jobs this year.

• A consultant claiming Sri Lanka's clothing industry had shrunk over the past five years. In fact independent data shows it exported 50% more clothes in 2008 than five years earlier.

• The Cambodian Commerce Minster claiming his country's clothing exports had fallen 70% in January. 48 hours later, his officials revealed exports were 250% greater than he'd claimed.

"False exaggerations undermine buyer confidence, as they get increasingly worried factories might go under; worker trust; government support, and banks' credit," said Clothesource CEO Mike Flanagan.

Worst, he says, exaggerations about sales distract attention from the real problems.

"Many clothing factories are struggling because their customers are delaying payment, their banks won't provide affordable credit, prices are falling orders aren't getting confirmed till late, and power supplies are getting less reliable.

"Worldwide, factories are exporting about the same number of clothes as they did in 2006. Egypt, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Honduras and Nicaragua sold more clothes to the US in 2008 than ever before.

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