# How plastic imports hit Dhaka’s local toy industry

> Plastic imports pushed aside Bangladesh’s handmade toys, then gave rise to a local factory industry that now makes millions of toys a year.

Published: 2026-10-09 · Desk: Business · Source: TezzFeed Desk · By: Maliha Rahham

There was a time when a child in Bangladesh did not need a battery powered plastic car, a talking doll or a tiny Chinese made kitchen set to have a good toy. Toys could be made from clay, wood, bamboo, cloth, paper and even scraps lying around the house. In Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh, local artisans made things like spinning tops, wooden cars, dolls, toy kitchens and small animals by hand. They were simple but they were cheap, colourful and very much part of everyday childhood. Then plastic arrived and the toy box changed completely.

Imported plastic toys, especially those coming from China began appearing everywhere. They were brighter and more detailed and could be produced in huge quantities. A handmade clay doll might take time and skill to make while a factory could produce thousands of plastic dolls in a day. For shopkeepers, the choice was pretty obvious as they could now buy more toys at a lower price and sell them quickly.

The effect on traditional toy makers was serious. Handmade toys struggled to compete with mass produced plastic products, particularly in village fairs and local markets. A 2022 report by The Daily Star described how traditional toy making had become a shrinking business with artisans directly competing against imported Chinese toys while lacking training, affordable loans and access to better materials. 

Plastic toys could imitate almost anything and there were so many varieties such as toy guns, cars, phones, animals, kitchen sets and cartoon characters. They were often made to look resplendently colourful and much more exciting than the handmade toys sitting beside them. As television advertising and later social media exposed Bangladeshi children to toys from other countries, their demand changed too. Traditional toys therefore started moving from being ordinary children's possessions to being something closer to folk art.

The irony is that the rise of imported plastic toys eventually helped create a local plastic toy industry in Bangladesh. Around the 2000s, Bangladesh depended heavily on imported toys. According to the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association about 90 percent of toys were imported around a decade before 2022. By 2022, that figure had fallen to roughly 10 percent as Bangladeshi manufacturers began producing toys locally.

Companies began making the same types of products that had once arrived from abroad. Factories appeared around Dhaka particularly in places such as Kamrangirchar, Keraniganj and the Old Dhaka area. Instead of importing a finished plastic toy, businesses could increasingly manufacture it themselves.

One example is the toy gun business in Kamrangirchar. In 2021, The Business Standard reported that local factories were producing plastic replica guns that had previously been imported from China. One manufacturer said an imported toy AK-47 that sold for around Tk 200 could be produced locally and wholesaled for about Tk 80. At the time, almost 150 small and large factories were producing toys in Bangladesh with more than 1500 different toy products being made locally.

So strangely enough plastic did not completely destroy Bangladesh's toy industry. It changed who made the toys and how they were made. The change also created jobs as modern toy factories employ workers in moulding, assembly, painting, packaging and design. Some factories have grown large enough to export their products. By 2025, The Daily Star reported that the domestic plastic toy market was estimated at Tk 12000 crore and that more than 300,000 people were directly and indirectly employed in the wider sector. Toy exports had also grown considerably with companies such as Sonic Bangladesh producing toys for international markets. 

Many local manufacturers still depend on imported machinery, moulds and components. A 2023 report by The Business Standard said manufacturers faced import duties of up to 52 percent on some toy components. More recent reporting has also pointed to high production costs, limited technology and infrastructure problems as barriers to making Bangladesh a major global toy exporter. 

 Traditional toys have not disappeared completely as they still survive in certain villages, fairs, craft markets and among families trying to preserve old skills. The problem is that they are no longer the default toys of childhood. Bangladesh did not simply lose its toy industry when plastic imports arrived. Instead one toy culture was pushed aside while another grew around it. The handmade clay doll gave way to the plastic doll. The wooden car gave way to the battery powered one and the small artisan workshop gradually made room for the plastic factory.

Today, Bangladesh is actually making millions of toys of its own but somewhere along the way the country became better at manufacturing toys than preserving the people and traditions that once made them by hand.

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