Apparel export exceeds seven-month target

Al Amin :
The export earnings from the country’s apparel sector have exceeded its estimated target in first seven months (July-January) period of the current fiscal year (2022-23) despite the economic turmoil across the globe.
The promising export growth is mainly for reaping up most benefits from US-China trade war and increase in unit price for rising production cost, the entrepreneurs of the sector said.
They, however, said that both export earnings and losses have increased during the seven months period as the sector is currently facing all kinds of crisis.
According to the Exports Promotion Bureau (EPB), the ready-made garment exports stood at $27.42 billion in first seven months against the estimated target of $26.17 billion.
The export earning is also higher than the previous year’s earning, that was $23.98 billion in the same period of last year.
Mohammad Hatem, Executive President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told The New Nation, “Bangladesh witnessed a surplus growth in apparel export as the retailers from American and European countries are placing more work orders in Bangladesh shifting from China due to the trade war, although it is less than expected level.”
“Besides, rise in unit price is also another reason behind the export growth. But, it will be very difficult to keep continue the growth in days to come,” he added.
Both knitwear and woven garments experienced export increases of 12.7 per cent and 16.3 per cent to $14.96 billion and $12.46 billion respectively. Both sectors also beat their targets for the seven month-period, the EPB data showed.
Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter in the world after China, boasting over 3,500 garment factories whose goods are sold to 167 countries.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex body of apparel sector, is eyeing a 10 per cent share of the global apparel market by 2025 and is aiming for an export target of $100 billion by 2030.
“Achieving the target, Bangladesh will have to take more initiatives including increase  
in higher valued items massively,” Hatem said. As per the latest data released by European statistics organization EUROSTAT, the EU imported $95.17 billion worth of apparel from the world with 22.39 per cent year-on-year growth in January to November 2022 period.
During the time, the western world imported apparels from Bangladesh alone worth 21.18 billion registering a promising growth 38.39 per cent compared to the same period in 2021.
During the first eleven months of 2022, EU’s imports from China reached $27.98 billion with a 19.29 per cent year-on-year growth. At the same time, imports from Turkey also grew by 11.56 per cent year-on-year.
EU’s imports from Turkey also stood at $11.09 billion and import from India reached $4.53 billion registering 21.52 per cent growth year-on-year.
Among the other top suppliers, EU’s imports from Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Indonesia increased by 35.89 per cent, 34.16 per cent, 27.99 per cent, 8.13 per cent, 17.32 per cent and 27.80 per cent respectively.
BGMEA Director Md Mohiuddin Rubel said, “We have many challenges, despite the strong performance as the global economic outlook indicates slowdown in 2023 and the inflation hits the record globally.”
“New orders have also fallen in most of our factories. So we need to prepare ourselves to face any kind of unprecedented situations in future,” he added.