Covid-19’s impact on Asia-Pacific supply chain
28/10/2020
New research from the International Labour Organization (ILO) has assessed covid-19’s impact on supply chains, factories and workers in 10 key garment-producing counties in the Asia-Pacific region: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
In some cases, imports from Asia’s garment-producing nations to major buying countries dropped by as much as 70% during the first half of 2020, with order cancellations being common. Up to 60% of garment manufacturers’ imported input supply was disrupted.
The ILO suggests that “millions” of workers across Asia and the Pacific have been impacted by the pandemic, with women being “disproportionately” affected, due to their accounting for the “majority” of the region’s garment workers. (Figures from 2019 show that the Asia-Pacific region then employed an estimated 65 million garment sector workers, making up 75% of all garment workers worldwide).
As of September 2020, roughly one in two garment workers in the region lived in countries which required the closure of garment factories, meaning that the “typical” worker went at least two weeks without work.
The ILO estimates that only around three in five workers were called back to their factories once they reopened, with many of those still employed experiencing lower and delayed wages.
Image: Fahad Abdullah Kaizer / UN Women
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