As Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry continues to expand its global footprint, the need for credibility, consistency, and compliance across the sourcing ecosystem has never been greater. At the center of this transformation are buying houses, key intermediaries responsible for safeguarding quality, ensuring ethical practices, and maintaining buyer confidence in Bangladesh’s apparel exports.
Fashion Business Journal spoke with Mohammad Mofazzal Hosen Pabel, President of the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association (BGBA) and Managing Director of Dongyi Sourcing Limited (DSL), on this critical issue. With extensive hands-on experience in global sourcing and industry leadership, Mr. Pabel offers a grounded perspective on why standardization and certification of buying houses have become imperative, not only to protect the sector’s reputation but also to support sustainable export growth.
In this interview, he discusses BGBA’s efforts to organize and professionalize the buying house sector, the risks posed by informal operators, and why mandatory certification is essential to ensure transparency, accountability, and long-term trust among international buyers as Bangladesh pursues its USD 100 billion export ambition.
FBJ: Buying Houses now play a critical role in Bangladesh’s apparel exports. How would you describe their contribution to the RMG value chain today?
Mr. Pabel: In the value chain of Bangladesh’s export-oriented readymade garment (RMG) industry, buying houses play a critical role in ensuring buyers’ trust in the country’s capacity to produce quality apparel. Bangladesh’s RMG export sector began in the 1980s, while the operation of buying houses started in the late 1990s. The principal functions of buying houses include promoting Bangladesh’s RMG production capacity, securing export orders, supervising the production process, and ensuring the timely export of finished products to buyers. This positions buying houses as a key intermediary responsible for maintaining product quality, compliance, and delivery schedules. Over time, the efficiency of buying houses has increased significantly, and today, the majority of RMG export orders are placed with factories through buying houses.
FBJ: How has BGBA’s role evolved from representing Buying Houses to actively shaping sourcing practices, and trade facilitation in Bangladesh’s RMG sector?
Mr. Pabel: Although the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association (BGBA) was initially established to organize companies involved in this trade, its role has not remained limited to that objective. Over time, BGBA has expanded its influence to other areas, including the regulation of trade practices, facilitation of business activities, and standardization within the buying house sector. These initiatives play a critical role in enhancing the efficiency and productivity of buying houses. As a result, international buyers increasingly prefer to place their orders through buying houses, and the growth of Bangladesh’s RMG export sector has been accompanied by a parallel expansion of buying houses.
FBJ: What are the key challenges Buying Houses face today, and how is BGBA engaging with policy makers to address the issue?
Mr. Pabel: The challenges currently faced by buying houses can be broadly categorized as structural and policy-related. Foremost among these challenges is the absence of a formal structural framework to register and recognize the contribution of buying houses to Bangladesh’s export economy. This lack of recognition has led to several related issues, including limited access to financial incentives, restricted scope for sending product samples, and inadequate access to capital.
The Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association (BGBA) has been actively engaging with policymakers to address these challenges and has received positive responses. These efforts have already resulted in certain policy support for buying houses, such as reductions in Advance Income Tax (AIT) and opportunities to participate in international trade fairs. Additionally, policymakers are actively working to include buying houses under the Online Export Monitoring System (OEMS). With continued engagement among BGBA, policymakers, and other stakeholders, there is strong optimism that many of these challenges will be resolved in the coming days.
FBJ: With growing global focus on compliances & sustainability, how is BGBA helping members and factory partners meet buyer’s expectations?
Mr. Pabel: As buying houses are responsible for supervising the entire production process—from the sourcing of raw materials to final shipment, they play a critical role in ensuring adherence to international quality, compliance, and sustainability standards mandated by foreign buyers.
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These responsibilities encompass environmental stewardship, social compliance, ethical sourcing, and governance practices in line with widely recognized ESG and buyer-compliance frameworks. Consequently, the responsibility of guiding and standardizing these practices across the sector rests with the Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association (BGBA) as the umbrella organization for buying houses in Bangladesh.
To this end, BGBA regularly organizes training workshops and capacity-building programs to enhance members’ understanding of environmental sustainability, labor and workplace compliance, ethical business conduct, and responsible supply-chain management, thereby strengthening buyer confidence and ensuring long-term sectoral sustainability.
FBJ: What differentiates BGBA-member buying houses from unregistered or informal operators?
Mr. Pabel: Most importantly, BGBA seeks to organize, unify, and standardize the buying house sector in Bangladesh in line with international best practices. To align with this objective, BGBA admits only those members who meet defined eligibility criteria and are actively engaged in the export of readymade garments. In contrast, informal operators often fail to meet basic professional, compliance, and operational standards and are frequently engaged in the trade on an occasional or ad hoc basis.
This raises serious concerns regarding credibility and has the potential to cause reputational damage to the sector as a whole. Both factories and foreign buyers have, at times, encountered difficulties arising from the activities of such informal operators and consequently seek assistance from BGBA. For this reason, BGBA is advocating for the mandatory adoption of BGBA certification for buying houses, as such a requirement would not only promote sector-wide unification but also ensure higher levels of quality, transparency, and professionalism within the trade.
FBJ: What is BGBA’s long-term vision for the buying house sector, and which areas will be prioritized in the next 5 years?
Mr. Pabel: We believe the long-term vision for BGBA should be to bring all buying houses in Bangladesh under this one unified umbrella. By focusing on capacity building for our members and encouraging more entrepreneurs to enter this trade, we can strengthen the industry and build a stronger collective voice to advocate for greater policy support from the government.
To achieve the national export target of USD 100 billion, Bangladesh needs a larger and more globally active network of buying houses exploring every continent to attract RMG orders. This expansion will directly benefit factories, create significant employment opportunities, and contribute meaningfully to the country’s economic growth.
