Low cost China hurts local garment exporter
Stabroek News
May 14, 2004
China's access to cheap labour is hitting local garment exporters who cannot compete and are laying off workers.
Troy Garment Industries, at 170 Charlotte Street, laid off 45 employees after losing its American contract to a Chinese firm.
Claude Miller, the owner of TGI says it is very difficult to compete with a country whose workers are at times paid as low as one US dollar per week.
The Miami-based garment factory which supplied the materials to be assembled locally, pulled out from TGI because it was cheaper to make the same clothing in China instead.
Troy Garment Industries produced 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of clothing every two weeks to export to Miami, but Miller told Stabroek Business that now, since his local markets are not as stable, it is difficult to put a figure to the amount of pieces he sells monthly.
After the Miami company pulled out, 45 employees lost their jobs and only 25 regular employees were retained.
No American or other overseas-based company has filled this void but Miller sells his clothing to local stores and takes orders as well.
"I am thinking now of strictly local work," Miller says. But even here local sales are hit by the large amounts of imported ready-made clothing.
He adds that some of these ready-made clothes are made locally but are re-exported to Guyana after the initial export.
Miller is also considering advertising his business to gain more local clients.
Now Miller buys his materials locally as the quantities he needs are much smaller.
Miller is a St. Vincentian who migrated to then British Guiana, in the 1950s at age 17.
He started his factory 14 years ago after a friend encouraged him to do so.
Before coming here, Miller had visited Trinidad and Tobago where he was introduced to tailoring by his uncle.
He says he chose Guyana because everyone was talking about the country at that time.
Miller married in Guyana and raised five children; one of his sons is following in his footsteps and is a tailor at a large US garment factory.
As to whether he will survive, he says "it's possible, you might and might not."
Miller sells pyjamas, pants (male and female), overalls and dust coats among other items.