Local ceramic tableware manufacturers have become the latest victim of the ongoing global financial crisis as their e

xports have been slipping constantly for the last few months.

“Our exports came down by around 20 percent in December compared to the previous month,” said Iftakher Uddin Farhad, ch

airman and managing director of FARR Ceramics Ltd.

He said his company exported Tk 2.6 crore worth ceramic tableware in October 2008, which dipped to Tk 2.19 crore in November and to Tk 1.48 crore in December.

According to statistics of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh exported ceramic tableware worth Tk 24.5 crore in September 2008, which came down to Tk 21 crore in October and Tk 16.6 crore in November.

However export earning from ceramic tableThursday, January 29, 2009  t of the same period of fiscal 2007-08.

Local ceramic tableware manufacturers have become the latest victim of the ongoing global financial crisis as their e

xports have been slipping constantly for the last few months.

“Our exports came down by around 20 percent in December compared to the previous month,” said Iftakher Uddin Farhad, ch

airman and managing director of FARR Ceramics Ltd.

He said his company exported Tk 2.6 crore worth ceramic tableware in October 2008, which dipped to Tk 2.19 crore in November and to Tk 1.48 crore in December.

According to statistics of Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh exported ceramic tableware worth Tk 24.5 crore in September 2008, which ware in the July-November period of the current fiscal year was higher by Tk 7 crore than tha

Bangladesh has got a huge opportunity in ceramic tableware market because of increasing demand from the developed countries in Europe and the US where the production cost of ceramic tableware has increased significantly due to an enormous rise in labour cost.

Here the manpower is cheap. Bangladesh has also made skilled people in the sector, industry people said.

Bangladesh's export markets include the UK, the USA, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Russia, the UAE, Denmark, Germany, France, Mexico, Turkey and the Middle East countries.

But the exporters have expressed concern over the deteriorating condition of export of the products for the last few months due to the global recession.

“We are yet to hit hard by the global financial crisis, but we may suffer in the days to come,” said Ashek Alam, general manager (marketing) of Shinepukur Ceramics Limited.

“We will be affected if our buyers suffer,” he said.

Shinepukur Ceramics is one of the two largest manufacturers of ceramic tableware in the country. The second one is Monno Ceramics.

Ashek Alam said Shinepukur exported $18 million worth ceramic tableware in fiscal 2007-08. The company accounts for about half of the total tableware exports from Bangladesh.

When contacted, Mainul Islam, vice chairman of Monno Ceramics, declined to make any comment on it.

Iftakher Uddin Farhad of FARR Ceramics said the industry is facing increasing challenges with the rise in prices of raw materials in addition to the global turmoil in financial sector.

He said Bangladesh needs to import 100 percent raw materials for producing ceramic tableware. The total tax for import of the raw materials stands at 30 percent that includes 7 percent import duty and 15 percent VAT (value added tax).