Representatives of nine top Myanmar based apparel factories went to Paris and Berlin last month in order to get a better understanding of European markets and European buyers’ requirements.
“The participants were able to gain insights into the multilayered European textile market by visiting two major garment and textile trade shows located in Paris and Berlin,” SMART Myanmar said on its website.
“The trade fairs gave them the chance to establish new business contacts as suppliers and to start practice dialogue with Asian and European partners,” Smart Myanmar added.
At the same time, visiting the fairs provided the participants with highly needed sourcing knowledge as a high number of Asian exhibitors were present with their products like fabrics and accessories.
The Myanmar garment manufacturers said they wished to add more value to their garment production by moving from the so called Cut Make Pack (CMP) business model to the higher margin Free On Board (FOB) production.
Through a systematic analysis of European shops, ranging from low level to high level price range, the entrepreneurs extended their knowledge on characteristics of the European market conditions.
A key event of the trip was an intensive dialogue with German buyers during a B2B meeting organised jointly with German Fashion Confederation and the Confederation of the German Fashion and Textile Industry.
In Paris, the main points on the agenda were shop and product analysis as well as the visit of one of the world’s major trade fairs in the textile sector, Tex World.
Giovanni Beatrice, Dutch garment expert held an introductory session where he provided the group with a tool for shop and product analysis as well as a tool for efficient price enquiries regarding suppliers.
During their visit of TexWorld, the delegation had the chance to speak both to buyers and to suppliers.
During the analysis sessions about the garment products being sold in Paris shops, they visited and analysed more than 30 shops in Paris.
In Berlin, the participants visited the trade fair, Asia Apparel. Here, they received a good overview about their competitors from China, Bangladesh and other Asian countries.
Like in Paris, product as well as shop analyses were conducted in Berlin and they compared shops ranging from C&A to Louis Vuitton, had a look at alternative shop concepts like TK Maxx.
The delegates also met with SMART Myanmar’s project director, Simone Lehmann in order to continue work on the Code of Conduct of Myanmar garment factories.
Both in Paris and Berlin, it emerged that Myanmar companies have a good reputation and that buyer companies start considering Myanmar as an alternative to countries like China and Bangladesh.
“Myanmar is not only offering comparably cheap labour, but has also made considerable progress in its reforms of relevant laws that set conditions for doing business in Myanmar,” SMART Myanmar informed.
