The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Council of Fiji having received some interest, hopes to see some new players in the garment industry this year, said TCF president Kaushik Kumar. Presently, there are more than 40 garment factories in the country.

On the council's expectations for this year, Mr Kumar said that they also expect exports to remain stable and have plans to explore new markets in the MSG group.

In the past few weeks garment factories advertised for a number of positions ranging from machinist to other garment factory workers.

There are a number of reasons for this. Some factories do experience an increased demand in orders in the new year and in order to meet delivery deadlines, additional staff are required, said Mr Kumar.

Also most factories close for annual leave around the Christmas and New Year period and a number of staff go back to their island, village or home towns and quite a few of them do not come back when factories reopen after the leave period.

Some workers return after one or two months, therefore factories has to find replacement staff members. While, some staff move on to other jobs.

Finding skilled staff remains a challenge in textile and garment industry, as in other industries. This shows that there is a demand for skilled workers in Fiji.

However, the industry has had a stable period and factories affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston are doing okay as well.