Notwithstanding the adverse impact of coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh continues to be amongst the top sourcing destinations for global brands and retailers even during the pandemic, maintained a recent report of QIMA, a leading supply chain compliance solutions provider, which attributed Bangladesh’s price competitiveness as a major reason behind the same.

According to the report, which was based on a survey (Evolution of Sourcing in 2020) carried out by QIMA in July 2020, and which tries to analyse the evolution of global sourcing in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the US-China trade tensions and other disruptions to global supply chains, there has been some impact on China, but the country was far from being out in terms of being a sourcing hub even as Vietnam continues its upward trend, luring Western buyers as an alternative to China.

The report further underlined that apart from Vietnam, Bangladesh and India are still amongst popular alternative sourcing options while Taiwan too enjoyed overwhelming preference amongst US-based respondents as a sourcing destination.

According to the QIMA report, 75 per cent of the respondents globally underlined that China was amongst the top three sourcing geographies, while a significant 55 per cent maintained that suppliers from China accounted for over half the buying volumes in the first half of the year.

However, as per the survey report, 40 per cent of the EU respondents and almost as many US brands have included Vietnam amongst their top sourcing regions, which gains significance in light of many brands and retailers reportedly moving out of China for their sourcing requirements.