“Today we somehow survived, but I don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” Ranjith Koralage, head of Kolonna Manufacturing, told the `.
His factory, which makes garments for Levi’s, Puma and Victoria’s Secret, is among dozens struggling to meet production targets due to fuel shortages, power outages and rising costs.
Clothing is the second largest source of foreign exchange for the Sri Lankan economy. The sector had just rebounded from being hit by the pandemic, hitting $5.42 billion after fashion exports rose 22.93 percent in 2021 from a year earlier, according to preliminary data that published by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board.
But Sri Lanka is now facing its worst financial crisis in decades, with foreign exchange reserves shrinking more than 16 percent to $1.93 billion in March, according to central bank data.
The dollar shortage has left the country struggling to pay for imports such as food, medicine and fuel, and the textile industry now fears it will lose business to India, Vietnam and Indonesia due to disruptions.
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