FASE apparel industry exhibition in November

EXHIBITION: One year after the end of apparel and textile quotas, Sri Lanka's ready-made garment industry must look sharp about upgrading its competitiveness to remain in business.

FASE - the Fabric and Accessory Suppliers Exhibition - is the one-stop-shop industry solution to face the many new challenges of quota free competition.

The annual industry event is organised by Lanka Exhibition and Conference Services and the Sri Lanka Apparel Institute and is supported by the Joint Apparel Association Forum and the Sri Lanka Garment Buying Offices Association.

FASE brings together suppliers of fabric, accessories and other related service providers from all parts of the world, at the Bandaranaike International Memorial Centre (BMICH) from November 9 to 11.

FASE also identifies and hosts foreign buyers of leading and upcoming fashion brands through its Hosted Buyers Programme.

The exhibition is a ready-made total solutions package for Sri Lanka's garment industry that suffers from poor backward integration.

Sri Lanka's garment export industry that brought in US$ 2.78 billion in 2005, imports over 60 percent of its raw materials. In 2004 total imports for the apparel industry came to over US$ 1.5 billion, according to the Export Development Board, Imported fabric alone, totalled over US$ 1.2 billion in 2004.

Countries like Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, India, South Korea and Pakistan are major suppliers of raw materials and many are also Sri Lanka's competitors in the world market.

With world apparel and textile quotas ending on December 31, 2004, price competition from larger producers like China, India and Pakistan, is mounting.

This is forcing apparel exporters to reduce prices just to stay in the market.

Foreign garment buyers too, are increasingly costing backward from pre-planned retail prices, which is also reducing supplier-end pricing flexibility.

On top of pressure to reduce prices, Sri Lankan exporters must also be able to deliver reliably and speedily to keep up with fashion trends that are changing faster than ever in saturated western markets.

FASE is structured to cater to all of these emerging industry needs by acting as a sourcing hub.

The three day exhibition will allow local companies to establish contact with international buying houses, fashion designers and design institutes, suppliers of fabric and other raw material, freight forwarders and shipping agents, testing equipment and packaging suppliers and many more.

FASE is supported by the Apparel Industry Suppliers Exhibition (AISEX), which brings together machinery and technology solutions under one roof.

AISEX is held at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre from November 9 to 11 parallel to FASE.

The two events combine for a total solutions package to fill in backward integration gaps in Sri Lanka's garment export industry.