Tangail’s shawl industry struggling to survive global warming
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
January 28, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 2023
Tangail’s shawl industry struggling to survive global warming

Industry

Tangail Correspondent
25 November, 2019, 12:25 pm
Last modified: 25 November, 2019, 01:16 pm

Related News

  • Child among 5 killed as train hits autorickshaw in Tangail
  • In defence of the art-targeting climate activists
  • 3 killed, dozens injured as several vehicles collide due to dense fog in Tangail
  • AB Bank inaugurates relocated Tangail branch
  • The Elon Musk of climate plans gets a test drive

Tangail’s shawl industry struggling to survive global warming

An ever-milder winter season caused by global warming has affected Tangail’s shawl industry

Tangail Correspondent
25 November, 2019, 12:25 pm
Last modified: 25 November, 2019, 01:16 pm
About 100 Tangail-based loom owners had to shut down their businesses after failing to cope with a rapidly falling demand for shawls. Photo: TBS
About 100 Tangail-based loom owners had to shut down their businesses after failing to cope with a rapidly falling demand for shawls. Photo: TBS

Mohammad Rupchan is a loom owner in Basail upazila in Tangail. Though he inherited the family business, he had to close it down recently because of the falling demand for winter shawls.

Rupchan is just one of about a hundred Tangail-based loom owners who had to shut-down their businesses after failing to cope with a rapidly falling demand for shawls. The problem has been created by milder winters as a result of global warming.

In Bangladesh, winter lasts from mid-November to mid-February, but because of global warming, both the duration and intensity of the coldest season of the year has reduced over the years.

Md Rabiul Islam, liaison officer of the Tangail Basic Centre of the Bangladesh Handloom Board, said that winters have become milder, causing a loss for shawl producers in Tangail.

Rabiul Islam says the production of shawls in Tangail dropped gradually from 2017, when 10 percent of the total shawl production was unsold. In that year, 5.6 lakh shawls were produced for a market value of Tk20.4 crore.

The portion of unsold shawls rose to 25 percent the following year. Total production was also low, as only 5 lakh pieces worth Tk20 crore were woven. This year, as of now, 20 percent of the shawls produced have been sold. 

The total production and market value has also declined by 20 percent this year, compared to that in the previous year. Only 4 lakh pieces worth Tk16 crore have been produced this year.

Most of the shawls are produced in the Bathuli Sadi area under Basail upazila in Tangail. There are five thousand handlooms in the area for shawl production, and the entire zone employs 11 thousand weavers.

Workers toil from dawn to midnight to produce at least 25 different varieties of shawls including Manipuri, Patta, High Choice, Nayantara and Flock Print.

During the heyday of the industry, Lal Miah, a handloom owner from the area used to mark-up the production cost by Tk20 per shawl to make a profit.

But now, even though he marks-up by Tk50, he still cannot avoid a loss because a sizable portion of the production remains unsold.

He said that he needs at least one lakh taka investment to sell his shawls in the winter, after storing them for nine months of the year.

Shortage of capital has prevented many people from restarting their closed businesses, Lal Miah observed.

Another handloom owner named Badsha Miah said that many like him are losing confidence in the business of winter shawls due to repeated losses over the last few years. 

At present he has unsold shawls worth Tk50 lakhs accumulated from the previous and current years stored in his house. 

Afzal Miah, a labourer at a shawl-weaving loom factory, said that his employer cannot sell enough shawls, and consequently cannot pay recruits like him regularly.

He said that if the business is shut down, not only will his employer suffer, but all his fellow workers and their families will starve. Their livelihood options are limited because they have no professional training in anything other than operating handlooms, he added.

Khan Ahmed Shuvo, general secretary of the Tangail Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said despite the popularity of Tangail looms, the government's help – now considered vital for their survival – is absent.

The government has to provide soft loans and export opportunities to help sustain the industry because over three hundred loom owners and weavers have already lost their livelihood, he added.

Top News

Tangail / Shawl / Global warming

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
    How will Bangladesh pay for massive upcoming power projects this year?
  •  Gautam Adani, center.Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
    What really worries Indians about Adani's empire
  • Representational image. A liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker is tugged towards a thermal power station in Futtsu, east of Tokyo, Japan November 13, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato
    Bangladesh seeks spot LNG cargo for first time in 8 months

MOST VIEWED

  • Mechanisation vital for commercialising agriculture: Minister
    Mechanisation vital for commercialising agriculture: Minister
  • Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt
    Manufacturers feel the pinch as consumers tighten belt
  • Illustration: TBS
    Commerce ministry to continue advocacy for simplification of business registration process: Minister
  • Looking ahead for SMEs
    Looking ahead for SMEs
  • Once booming steel industry now in deep stress
    Once booming steel industry now in deep stress
  • Amrita Makin Islam. TBS Sketch
    German supply chain law: Boon or bust?

Related News

  • Child among 5 killed as train hits autorickshaw in Tangail
  • In defence of the art-targeting climate activists
  • 3 killed, dozens injured as several vehicles collide due to dense fog in Tangail
  • AB Bank inaugurates relocated Tangail branch
  • The Elon Musk of climate plans gets a test drive

Features

Sketch:TBS

Why we need consumer education for consumer wellbeing

12h | Thoughts
Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute. Illustration: TBS

Twin shocks call for stronger domestic policy response

13h | Thoughts
December-er shohor, taxi taken for airport and the Park Street bathed in lights. Photo: Jannatul Naym Pieal

Exploring Kolkata on foot, empowered by Google Maps

13h | Explorer
Island hopping in Bangladesh?

Island hopping in Bangladesh?

15h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

Kajol’s road paintings bring change in Gafargaon

1d | TBS Stories
Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

Carew & Company witnessed a remarkable growth

1d | TBS Stories
Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

Gavi may have to leave Camp Nou

2h | TBS SPORTS
After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

After all the controversies, how is Shah Rukh Khan's ‘Pathaan’?

4h | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 
Bangladesh

Four top bankers arrested in DSA case filed by S Alam group 

3
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]