Taiwanese garment factory struggles to survive

Over the course of this week we’ve taken a close look at the subject of illegal immigration, specifically allegations that Belizean nationality is being sold by corrupt officials and their partners in the private sector. But not all foreigners in Belize are engaged in passport scams. Some have made substantial investments here…and News 5’s Janelle Chanona visited one Taiwanese owned operation that’s struggling to maintain a toehold in the highly competitive world of clothing exports.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

Pearl Touch Industrial Company is just one of a few garment manufacturers working in Belize. Located in the Belize Export Processing Zone in the Corozal District, the company specialises in clothing for women and children, working with special fire resistant fabrics to fill orders for U.S. and Canadian companies.

Annie Sun, General Manager, Pearl Touch Industrial Co.

“The production right now we make for Kmart…we make mostly for Kmart and Wal-Mart, Disney, Winnie the Pooh, all the brand for the licensed customer.”

But while the market is there, stiff global competition creates a relentless pressure for greater efficiency and lower costs. Despite a favourable quota into the U.S. market there is some doubt as to whether the label “Made in Belize” will ever gain worldwide recognition. According to General Manager Annie Sun, the company employs approximately a hundred and fifty Belizeans, and while she would like to see that number grow to as many as five hundred, the outlook is not bright.

Annie Sun

“People come and go. We spend too much time to train them. Sometimes when they finish training, they disappear and then we have to restart new people. We accept all the new people coming in, and we give everybody chance to learn and train them but for some reason some of them disappear.”

With the company having to import all its raw materials and the situation with the staff, presently the company is only exporting one twenty-foot container per week.

Annie Sun

“In order to get people to make people feel comfortable doing sewing, we have to start from a simple style. And later if they can do a little detail style, then we can get a higher C.M.T., maybe we can start to get profit. But so far, the company is losing money.”

To offset the low production rates, Pearl Touch has imported twenty workers from mainland China.

Annie Sun

“Chinese workers they work very fast because they want to make more money. They come all the way from China to here, so they want to make more money so they can go back. So they make…compared to a little detail like side vent or side slit, Belizean worker maximum can only do ten dozen a day with nine hours. With Chinese workers, they can do a hundred dozen.”

So what do Annie Sun and Pearl Touch need to make money?

Annie Sun

“People. Attitude. Working hard.”

And what about the Belizean workforce, how do they like their jobs?

Janelle Chanona

“You like working here?”

Anna Keme, Garment Factory Worker

“Yes, me like here because I like to sew and the beautiful things that we sew. Me like everybody here. The Chinese, because the Chinese talk, sometimes they play with us and sometimes, no play, time to work.”

Elvira Villanueva, Garment Factory Worker

“Right here where I work I no get so tired. Most of the time I sitting down and just sewing. Not get so tired.”

Janelle Chanona

“Your working conditions are okay with you? You noh have any complaints there?”

Elvira Villanueva

“Well, I wouldn’t like to comment on that.”

Janelle Chanona

“How come? You think you will get into trouble?”

Elvira Villanueva

“Yeah.”

Eddie Trapp, Garment Factory Worker

“I don’t see nothing wrong with the job, the only thing I can say is the pay is low.”

Annie Sun

“By hour we pay two dollars an hour. But they have extra bonus, depends on how fast they do.”

Elvira Villanueva

“Because as domestic I think we should get more than two dollars an hour. Everybody.”

And you check with Labour [Department] to make sure that’s the correct price?

Elvira Villanueva

“No they just say we’re having a raise because right over there at the packing shed for the papaya. They used to pay two-fifteen and now they paying two twenty-five or two-fifty an hour, and we just getting the same thing as two dollars.”

“Not everybody is satisfied, but to have a job these days you have to mind it.”

Despite the workers complaints, according to the Labour Department, that two-dollar per hour rate is the minimum wage for factory workers. A new law, passed but not yet Gazetted, will take that number to two dollars and twenty-five cents an hour.

According to General Manager Annie Sun, the owners of Pearl Touch say that given the current high overheads and low production rates, they can only to afford to run the garment factory until November 2003. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.

The sewing factory in Corozal opened in November of 2000.