India vs Bangladesh for Garment Sourcing: Inputs, Scale, Duty and Paperwork

Primark publishes where its clothes are made, and the November 2025 file tells a plain story. It lists 142 factories in Bangladesh employing 458,689 people, and 105 in India employing 73,674 (Primark Global Sourcing Map (opens in a new tab), counts only). Do the division and the average Bangladeshi factory has about 3,230 workers while the average Indian one has about 700. Same retailer, same sort of product, two very different ideas of what a garment factory is. That one gap explains most of what follows.

This page sets the two countries side by side on the four things a garment buyer actually weighs: inputs, scale, duty and paperwork. It doesn't pick a winner, because the answer changes with your order size and your market. The India side of the argument is on why source from India, so here we spend our words on the comparison and on the numbers we pulled ourselves. One caveat - Bangladesh is the country where we have the least first-hand operator knowledge, so every claim about it comes from official data or a named report, and what we couldn't find is said out loud.

1. Inputs: Who Grows And Spins What

Start with the yarn, because it decides almost everything else. India grows cotton. It's the second-largest producer, and its crop is where most of the world's organic cotton comes from (Textile Exchange, Materials Market Report 2025 (opens in a new tab), set out on why source from India). Bangladesh grows almost none and is the world's largest importer of raw cotton, according to USDA forecasts relayed by the press (The Daily Star on USDA's Bangladesh forecast (opens in a new tab), Reported). So both countries make cotton clothes, but only one starts from its own fibre.

Here's the part most comparison pages miss. India supplies Bangladesh's mills. In 2025 India exported US$3.19 billion of ordinary cotton yarn (HS 5205) and Bangladesh bought US$1.52 billion of it, which is 47.7% (UN Comtrade, India's own export record, our pull). On raw cotton, 90.3% of India's much smaller exports went to Bangladesh, US$491 million of US$544 million. Even man-made fibre and knitted fabric go that way, though in smaller shares, 9% and 16.5%.

What does that mean for you? It means "Bangladesh versus India" isn't always two separate supply chains. A Dhaka factory may be knitting your T-shirt from Indian yarn, and a Tiruppur one may be doing the same. The reverse is true for the buyer who cares about traceability. If you want to say your shirt is Indian cotton from field to shelf, you need to ask each spinner where the lint came from, and the cotton traceability guide shows how. For Bangladesh you'll want the same question one step earlier, since the lint is imported and the mix of origins changes by season.

Origin rules sit on top of this. Under the Indian agreements we've read, yarn and fabric from a third country, Bangladesh included, never counts as Indian (rules of origin). Bangladesh's position under the UK scheme is different and easier, which section 5 explains.

2. Scale: Five Times The Factory

Back to Primark. The numbers say Bangladesh is built for volume. Its average disclosed factory is about five times the size of one in the Tiruppur area, where 52 of Primark's 105 Indian factories sit, averaging about 620 workers (Primark Global Sourcing Map (opens in a new tab), Nov 2025, counts only). Large factories mean line balancing, in-house compliance teams and the habit of quoting a million pieces without blinking. They also mean your 3,000-piece order is a small order, and small orders get small attention.

India's strength is the opposite. Mid-size units, many of them, with a long tail of workshops. That's friendlier to a 500-piece first order and to a buyer who wants to talk to the owner. It's less friendly to anyone who needs 200,000 pieces of the same basic by Friday. We covered this size gap, and ICRIER's reasons behind it, on why source from India, so we won't repeat it here.

Two honest counter-signals. First, H&M's supplier list shows more disclosed GOTS certification at its Bangladeshi factories than its Indian ones, 28% against 4% of rows, though the certification field is blank for 200 of its 220 Indian rows, so a blank isn't a "no" (H&M Group public supplier list, Aug 2026, our count). Second, on the whole-country figure India still leads. It holds 27.8% of the world's GOTS-certified facilities to Bangladesh's 9.3% (GOTS Annual Report 2025 (opens in a new tab)). Both are true. India has more certified facilities. A given brand's Bangladeshi factories may have disclosed more of theirs.

On labour compliance programmes the position is simpler. The ILO's Better Work programme runs in Bangladesh and not in India (Better Work (opens in a new tab), read 25 Sep 2026). If your retailer's audit regime assumes Better Work reports, an Indian factory will need other evidence, and the verification guide shows what to ask for.

3. Price Per Piece: The T-Shirt Is Not The Whole Story

On a cotton T-shirt Bangladesh is cheaper in most of our markets. The customs values per piece in 2025 put India 21% above Bangladesh in the EU, 27% above in the UK and 12% above in the US, and 13% below in Australia (Eurostat, HMRC, UN Comtrade, 2025, our arithmetic, with the full table on why source from India). Those are customs values, not quotes, and a plain white tee shares a code with a printed organic one.

The more useful finding is what happens off the T-shirt. On cotton sweatshirts and jerseys (HS 6110.20) the picture changes. In 2025 the EU recorded India's men's version at 0.7% below Bangladesh's, and the women's at 11.5% below. The UK recorded India 15% above, the US 8% above, and Australia 34% above (Eurostat, HMRC, UN Comtrade, 2025, our arithmetic). So the old line that "India can't match Bangladesh on price" is true for the white T-shirt and much less true for heavier knits sold into Europe.

Why? Our reading is mix, not magic. Bangladesh's scale advantage is strongest where the product is simplest and the run is longest, and fleece has more cutting, more fabric weight and more variation. We can't prove that from customs data, so treat it as Indicative and test it with your own spec. Per kilo, India earns more than Bangladesh on T-shirts in both the EU and the UK, which fits finer yarn, more finishing or print, or an organic premium. Customs data can't separate those.

If you want the per-piece comparison on your own product, run both countries through the landed cost calculator with the same quantity and Incoterm, and never compare unit prices alone.

4. Duty By Destination: Where The Gap Is Wider Or Smaller

Customs values leave duty out, and in garments duty is where the two countries differ most. Here's the position for the four markets most of our readers sell into, as of 5 October 2026.

Sources: European Commission GSP Q&A (opens in a new tab), GOV.UK preference tiers (opens in a new tab), 91 FR 47318 (opens in a new tab), BGMEA on Australia, Apparel Resources (opens in a new tab), and our destination pages for the EU, the UK, the US and Australia.

Read the table for what changed. In the UK the duty gap that existed through 2025 is gone, because CETA took Indian apparel to zero. In the US there never was a gap, since Bangladesh and India sit in the same 10% tier. The EU is the one market where Bangladesh still holds a clear duty edge. India's side changes when the EU agreement enters into force, and we haven't read its apparel schedule, so recheck then. Until then, price the EU on the rate you can prove.

Then there's the date everyone quotes. Bangladesh was due to leave least-developed status on 24 November 2026. The UN Economic and Social Council backed a three-year deferral in July, and the General Assembly is expected to take the final vote in October or early November rather than in September (The Financial Express, 26 Sep 2026 (opens in a new tab), Reported). For an EU or UK buyer it hardly matters, since both give three years of transition either way. It matters more for the long game, because after 2029 the UK moves Bangladesh to its Enhanced tier and the EU offers GSP+ only if Bangladesh meets its conditions. Price 2030 as a different market.

The full method for working out the real duty on your own code is on how to work out import duty, and the phase-in dates for the new agreements are on FTA duty phase-down.

5. Paperwork: Who Signs The Origin Proof

Duty only helps if you can prove origin, and the two countries ask different things of you.

For Indian goods the proof varies by market. In the EU you want the supplier's REX number, because a "GSP price" without one can't be delivered (EU page). In the UK, CETA accepts a signed origin declaration, which GOV.UK publishes as a ten-box form (UK page). In Australia there's no self-declaration at all, and the certificate comes from a designated Indian agency (Australia page). Three markets, three proofs, and the supplier has to know which.

For Bangladeshi goods into the EU, exporters register with the Export Promotion Bureau to make REX statements on origin (The Business Standard, on the EU REX system (opens in a new tab), Reported). That part is the same idea as India's. What we haven't read is the Bangladeshi route into the UK and Australia, so we won't describe it. Ask your Bangladeshi supplier which proof they use for your market and to show you one from a past shipment.

On the UK, one detail is worth knowing. From 1 January 2026 the UK removed the "double transformation" rule for garments from Enhanced Preference countries, so those exporters can use fabric from anywhere, and the apparel rules stay the same when an LDC graduates (GOV.UK, July 2025 (opens in a new tab)). India, by contrast, uses CETA's own tests, so imported fabric counts against you. The origin rules are on rules of origin.

If a certificate or a declaration looks complicated, that's because it is, and it's a common reason a buyer pays full duty by mistake. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can chase the proof with the supplier so the shipment clears at the rate you priced.

6. Lead Times: What Nobody Has Measured

You'll see confident lead-time claims for both countries on supplier sites. We haven't found a published, measured comparison, so we won't give you one. What we can say is where the time hides.

For India, it's inland and at the hub. Tiruppur ships through Cochin or Tuticorin and the sea leg to Melbourne runs about 28 to 45 days, depending on the routing (our India lane map, carrier schedules read 23 Sep 2026). For Bangladesh, the yarn story is instructive. In April 2025 Bangladesh's revenue board closed five land ports to Indian yarn, and knitwear makers who had been trucking it in about a week were told to use the sea, adding up to two weeks (The Daily Star, 16 Apr 2025 (opens in a new tab)). Whether that curb still stands in full, we couldn't confirm, and the detail is on importing from India to Bangladesh. The point for you is that a Bangladeshi factory's lead time depends on imported inputs crossing a border that politics opens and closes.

7. Which One For Which Order

Here's how we'd decide, as of today.

Choose Bangladesh when your order is a long run of simple knit basics, you sell into the EU, and your retailer's audit regime expects Better Work-style reporting. The scale, the duty and the yarn chain all point that way.

Choose India when the order is smaller, the product is heavier or more finished (fleece, babywear, prints, woven shirts), your market is the UK or Australia where duty is now zero, or your brand's promise is certified or organic fibre. Tiruppur for knits and the northern belt for wovens, as we set out in India's factory cities.

Choose both when you want a hedge. Plenty of buyers run basics from Dhaka and the finished lines from India, and the yarn crossing the border between them is the same. The wider China comparison is on India vs China and the method for testing a second country is in the China+1 guide.

Which brings us back to Primark's two numbers. A factory of 3,230 and a factory of 700 aren't better or worse. They're built for different customers. Know which one you are, and the comparison mostly answers itself. And if you want a second pair of eyes on a supplier in either country before you place the order, SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) does that.