Apparel industry defies odd Export hits 24.49b

Export of ready-made garments (RMG) surged by 14 per cent to reach $24.49 billion in the just-concluded fiscal year (2013-14) defying a global negative propaganda on the industry and political turmoil at home.
This was possible due to certain favorable factors like aggressive marketing of the garments owners, dedication of the workers, low wage level, value addition of apparels, market diversification and reliability of the global buyers, insiders said.
Bangladesh is the biggest apparel exporters after China fetched $21.51 billion from the shipments garments in last fiscal year 2012-13, accounting for nearly 80 per cent share of its export basket, according to an official figure. “We are satisfied with the last fiscal’s export value, but this could be enlarged further if a congenial business climate persists at home and abroad,” Exporters Association President Abdus Salam Murshedy told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, 2013 was an eventful year for the local export sector, especially for apparel industry, as it had to face various shocks arisen from a negative global propaganda in the aftermath of Rana Plaza disaster and political unrest at home.
But, the local exporters have successfully tackled the adverse situation by aggregative marketing and delivering the export consignments in time, he added.
“Our entrepreneurs were committed to recover the damage done by the factory disasters and so that they were engaged all-out efforts to regain the confidence of global buyers,” he said, adding, “Finally, they have proven their reliability to the global buyers which’s refection is evident in the apparel export figure”.
Murshedy a former President of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) further said, the other factors, which helped to attain higher apparel exports, were: dedication of the workers, low wage level, value addition of apparel products and buyers satisfaction.
Murshey mentioned, the initiative of market diversification by the exporters also bear fruit last fiscal with growing value of export from the non-traditional markets including Latin America, India, Japan, Russia, Middle East and South Africa apart from traditional markets in Europe and America.
“We are thankful to the government for providing necessary policy support to the apparel industry which now becomes the largest export industry in the country capitalizing the government support,” he said.