Agro products, jute, leather export drop alarmingly

Staff Reporter :
Despite the country’s exports grew by 6.67 percent year-on-year and reached $55.55 billion in the outgoing financial year of 2022-23 riding on the performance of the apparel sector, italso witnessed a significant drop in hefty export items including agricultural products, leather, jute, and frozen fish with negative growths in FY23.

The billion-dollar-earner jute and jute goods sector, which used to be called “golden fibre”, experienced over 19 percent negative growth to stand at $912 million worth of exports.

The earnings from the sector were 29 percent short of the $1.29 billion target for FY23, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

Export earnings from jute yarn and twine recorded the sharpest fall among other sub-sectors in the jute industry.

Leather and leather products sector which also considered country’s third engine for growth has also failed to achieve its export target by a margin of 1.74 per cent year-on-year to $1.22 billion in FY23. The export target for the sector was $1.44 billion.

Besides, agricultural products export experienced over 27.47 negative growths to stand at $843 million in FY 23. It is 40 percent lower than the $1.39 billion target.

Likewise, the receipts from the shipment of frozen and live fish, including shrimp, fell 21 per cent year-on-year to $422 million, the EPB data showed.

Exporters have attributed the negative growth in major sectors of the merchandise trade to various reasons particularly the waning demand resulting from the economic slowdown in major markets such as Europe.

Commenting on falling in jute and jute goods exports, Md Abul Hossain, chairman of the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA), said a number of factors such as the anti-dumping duty imposed by India on jute goods from Bangladesh and high prices of raw jute in 2020-21 affected the shipment of the products made from the natural fiber.

Explaining causes of sharp fall of frozen fish including shrimp, experts said that the main harvesting season for brackish water shrimp begins in May and they usually get good responses from buyers during this period.

And since shrimp is not an essential item, its shipment has declined in Europe, the main market for black tiger shrimps as the consumption in our main markets is falling owing to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, they added.

Shaheen Ahmed, president of the Bangladesh Tanners’ Association, said their sector saw a setback mainly due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Besides, non-compliance in Savar tannery estate remains a challenge for Bangladesh,” he said and hoped that the global market would turn to a positive direction by the end of this year.

Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said the decline of exports in the non-garment sector is alarming for the economy.

“If the trend persists, it may impact employment since manufacturers may cut jobs to tackle the challenges.” he added.

Meanwhile, the government has revised down the export target to $70 billion from $80 billion for the fiscal year 2023-24, considering the turbulent global economic situation.

Of the total, $60 billion is expected from goods and $10 billion from the service sector.