KATHMANDU: European Union — which has emerged as the next promising market for Nepali Readymade Garment — has instructed to issue compulsory azo Free Certificate for the export till 2012.

“The European Union has recently issued a notice that has asked for a azo free dyes certificate within 2012 for the shipment of garment products,” said president of Garment Association-Nepal Uday Raj Pandey.

“But there is a very negligible number of exporters, who use azo dyes in the domestic garment sector,” he said, adding that they are, still, trying to make the exporters aware about the use of azo dyes and its results. “We are also trying to create awareness regarding the use of standard colour dyes in garment products,” he added.

Azo Dyes is a dye made of aryl azo compounds which have vivid colours, especially red, orange, and yellow and therefore used as dyes that are popularly known as azo dyes.

Azo Dyes are the major colourants in the textile industry. It allows colours with outstanding colour fastness and wide huge spectrum. However, it may cause health hazard.

According to Pandey, azo dyes are mainly used by exporters doing business in a very small scale, whereas large exporters directly import quality cloths that need not to be dyed in Nepal. “Therefore most of the Nepali garment products are made of high quality clothes and they are already certified from Indian Laboratories,” he said, adding that Nepal Bureau of Standard and Meteorology also has technology to examine azo dyes but due to the lack of regular work, the machine has remained unused.

“It is a very practical problem and we are soon going to take initiations on proper certification of Nepali Readymade Garments. He also suggested the exporters to be conscious on the use of quality dyes which does not create any health hazards. After the failure in increasing Nepali Readymade Garment exports to the US, special trade facilitation by the EU has diverted exporters to the European market. “With Duty Free Derogation facility granted by the EU to 41 LDCs, Nepal has benefited in textile, garment and sugar exports to EU.”

Europe has become a key market for Nepali garment exporters as it has seen a steep rise in exports whereas the another market America has witnessed a minimal growth. Some small scale exporters are exporting to the US in a very small quantity not making any significant rise in the exports lately, he added.