SLASA focuses on being ‘competitive, reliable and in a safe pair of hands’

The Sri Lanka Apparel Sourcing Association (SLASA) held a sundown meeting with the objective of moving beyond immediate challenges facing the apparel industry and obtaining the buy-in of the industry to make it more competitive, given the lessons learned this year. While the Sri Lankan apparel industry’s export figures were phenomenally good in 2022 despite the fallout from the pandemic and the economic crisis – a total of USD 5.5 billion, the highest increase of 10 percent since the crisis, the industry’s performance hit a low from the beginning of 2023.

Presenting the business side was Secretary of SLASA, Gayan Galapitage. “Global inflation, softening retail markets, the Russia-Ukraine war and uncertainty in financial markets all helmed the challenges that led to Sri Lanka’s apparel exports reducing 16.5 percent in the first five months of 2023 with the primary markets of US, EU and UK all facing unprecedented challenges. US orders regressed by a significant 22 percent, the UK by 15 percent and the EU by 14 percent.”

Panelists at the discussion were Chairman of SLASA Wilhelm Elias, Vice Chairman Azmina Kareem, Ex-Co Member Padmal Silva and Committee Member Sandun Silva with the session moderated by SLASA’S Secretary General Gopal K Iyer.

Elias, given his 25-year experience has global insights into the industry, added that Sri Lanka imports about 70 percent of the fabric requirement which translates to high fabric prices.

Observing the reasons for the downturn in fortune for Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, Elias opined five primary reasons: “Customers being overstocked post-Covid as a result of buying in advance due to extended lead times, inflation in the UK and the EU reaching unprecedented levels, the Sterling Pound losing ground to the US dollar which resulted in 11.5 percent decline in buyer budgets, Sri Lanka’s destabilization in May 2022 seeing customers shift to Bangladesh and India and both these countries pushing costs down significantly to keep factories operational, which Sri Lanka found difficult to compete with,” he stated.