BD apparel export to US grew by 14pc in last 5yrs

Staff Reporter  :
USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh has increased by 13.99 per cent in the last five years (2018-2022), according to the latest data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA).

The data also showed that Bangladesh remains the third largest apparel source for USA with a 9.75 per cent share of its total readymade garments import, which was 8.76 per cent in 2021.

The USA’s clothing import from Bangladesh grew by 36.38 per cent year-over-year in 2022 and the country imported $ 9.74 billion worth of apparel from Bangladesh in 2022 which was $ 7.16 billion in 2021 and $ 5.40 billion in 2018, the data said.

In terms of the quantity based statistics measured in per square meter equivalent (SME), USA’s apparel import from Bangladesh registered 20.65 per cent Y-o-Y growth, which reached 3.14 billion SME in 2022 from 2.60 billion in 2021.

On the other hand, USA’s import from China has declined by 3.11 per cent quantity-wise in 2022 compared to 2021.

BGMEA President Faruque Hassan said, “We have huge opportunity to increase the share further. We have already gained the top position in USA’s denim import very recently.

There are few more product categories where we have potential to further penetrate.”

“Besides, we still have a number of US brands yet to source from Bangladesh or are sourcing at a limited scale. So, while we urge for diversifying our markets, we think we still have a huge scope of specialization in the existing ones,” he added.

The OTEXA data also showed that the USA’s import from the world increased by 22.48 per cent year-on-year and reached $99.93 billion in 2022 from $81.58 billion in 2021.

China, being the top apparel import source for USA and having a 21.75 per cent share, posted 10.83 per cent year-over-year growth in 2022 in terms of value.

The country’s RMG import from China reached $21.73 billion in 2022 from $19.60 billion in 2021 which was $27.37 billion in 2018.

On the other hand, Vietnam remains in the second position and the value of USA’s clothing from Vietnam was $12.21 billion in 2018 which increased to $14.37 in 2021 and reached $18.24 billion in 2022.

The share of Vietnam in USA’s total apparel import also increased to 18.26 per cent in 2022 from 14.74 per cent in 2018. India and Indonesia both countries have shown over 35 per cent growth in 2022 compared to 2021.

The share of both countries increased to 5.69 per cent and 5.61 per cent respectively in 2022 from 4.59 per cent and 5.40 per cent in 2018.

Other top countries having mentionable growth were Cambodia 28.46 per cent, South Korea 25.08 per cent, Pakistan 24 per cent, Honduras 19.85 per cent and Mexico 11.50 per cent in 2022.