AWARE™ has signed an MOU with BGMEA to bring blockchain-based traceability and Digital Product Passport readiness to Bangladesh’s garment industry
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and AWARE™, the Dutch supply chain traceability platform, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Dhaka, establishing a formal collaboration to bring blockchain-based transparency and Digital Product Passport (DPP) capability to Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) industry. The agreement was signed by Ms. Vidiya Amrit Khan, Vice President of BGMEA, and Mr. Feico van der Veen, Founder and Managing Director of AWARE™, and witnessed by Mr. Shah Rayeed Chowdhury, Director of BGMEA.
BGMEA represents approximately 4,000 registered garment factories across Bangladesh — the world’s second largest apparel exporter whose products reach consumers across Europe, North America, and beyond. With the European Union’s mandatory Digital Product Passport regulation coming into force in 2027, this MOU marks a pivotal step in ensuring that Bangladesh’s garment sector is not only compliant, but a trusted, low-risk sourcing partner for every European brand it supplies.
The cross-border traceability challenge
Bangladesh’s RMG industry accounts for more than 85% of the country’s total export earnings, with the European Union representing its single most important market. From 2027, every textile and garment product entering Europe must carry a verified Digital Product Passport. A scannable, tamper-proof record of the product’s material origin, production journey, and environmental footprint.
Here lies a fundamental challenge unique to Bangladesh: the country’s garment industry depends on imported fibers and yarns. The materials that become Bangladeshi garments originate in China, India, and beyond. Crossing borders before a single stitch is made. Under the EU’s DPP regulation, brands need verified proof of those materials’ origins. Without cross-border traceability, that proof simply does not exist.
This is precisely where AWARE™’s tokenization technology becomes transformative. When fibers and yarns are produced at origin, AWARE™ creates a blockchainanchored Data Token for each production batch. That token carrying verified data about the material’s origin, composition, and sustainability credentials travels with the physical shipment across borders. When the fiber arrives at a Bangladeshi factory, its data arrives with it. The factory then adds its own production data to the token, building a continuous, unbroken chain of evidence from fiber origin to finished garment.
For European brands sourcing from Bangladesh, this solves a critical compliance risk. Brands receive from the garment factory a complete, independently verifiable data package with every order. Material origins confirmed, production steps recorded, environmental footprint calculated from real data. Not estimates. Not assumptions. Proof.
Bangladesh makes the clothes the world wears. The factories here are extraordinary. The scale, the skill, the speed. But the materials come from everywhere. That is the reality of global garment manufacturing, and it is exactly why traceability has been so hard. AWARE™ solves it by making data travel with the material. With this collaboration, BGMEA shows the leadership that will define which producers thrive in the new regulatory reality.
— Feico van der Veen, Founder & Managing Director, AWARE™
What the partnership delivers
Under the MOU, BGMEA will actively promote and facilitate the adoption of AWARE™ technology among its member factories through newsletters, seminars, workshops, roadshows, and official communications. AWARE™ will offer member factories a preferential pricing scheme along with comprehensive onboarding, training, and technical support tailored specifically to the Bangladesh RMG sector.
The collaboration targets the full garment supply chain. Using AWARE™’s blockchainanchored tokenization technology, factories at every stage — from fiber to spinner to garment maker — can record, verify, and share production data instantly. The result is a fully EU-compliant Digital Product Passport, generated automatically for every product, with a QR code that delivers verified proof of origin, materials, and environmental footprint to any brand or consumer anywhere in the world.
Critically, the MOU establishes that all data generated by member factories belongs entirely to those factories. Producers own their data, control who accesses it, and retain it permanently, including if they ever leave the platform. This is data sovereignty by design.
“BGMEA has always stood for protecting the interests of Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers and ensuring their access to global markets. This partnership with AWARE™ is a direct expression of that mission. The EU Digital Product Passport is coming, and our members must be ready. We believe AWARE™’s technology gives Bangladesh’s factories the tools to not just comply, but to lead.”
— Ms. Vidiya Amrit Khan, Vice President, BGMEA
From compliance risk to competitive advantage
For European brands, the stakes of non-compliance are significant. Under the EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), placing a garment on the European market without a valid Digital Product Passport is a legal liability. Brands that cannot verify the origin and composition of their products face regulatory exposure, reputational risk, and potential market access barriers. The BGMEA–AWARE™ collaboration directly addresses that risk, turning Bangladesh into a source of verified, brand-ready garment data rather than a compliance question mark.
For Bangladeshi factories, the benefit goes further than compliance. Every factory that generates verified data through AWARE™ becomes a lower-risk, higher-value sourcing partner for every European brand it supplies. Factories own their data completely. It cannot be deleted, sold, or repurposed without their explicit consent. And through AWARE™’s downstream visibility feature, garment makers can see in real time exactly which brands and end products are made from their production, a commercial intelligence capability no certification system currently provides.
“I see every day what these factories are capable of. The EU regulation is not a threat to Bangladesh; it is an opportunity. The factories that are ready will win the orders. BGMEA and AWARE™ are here to make sure they are ready.”
— Muyeed Hasan, Country Manager Bangladesh, AWARE
Pilot projects with selected spinners and garment manufacturers are planned to commence immediately, building the first cross-border, fiber-to-garment DPP supply chains from Bangladesh to European brands.
