Exports of readymade garments (RMG) are encouraging in January, the first month of the year. As a single month, January saw nearly $5 billion worth of apparel exports. Which is 12.45 percent higher than the same period of last financial year. This is the highest for a single month.
Farooq Hasan, president of garment exporters’ organization BGMEA, said this information after analyzing the data of Export Development Bureau (EPB). He said that the highest export record for a single month was recorded in January. 4.97 billion or about 5 billion dollars worth of apparels have been exported this month.
BGMEA president said that the figure of garment exports in the second half of the current financial year was disappointing, but the export growth in January turned towards a positive indicator. This month there has been a growth of 12.45 percent in garment exports. While there was a growth of 7.16 percent in oven clothes, there was a growth of 17.32 percent in knitwear.
Expressing hope that the rest of the year will bring better news, Farooq Hasan said that the world economy and trade have now started to turn around. Last year’s holiday season saw strong sales in our key markets, the US and the UK. The products that were stored in their inventory so far have also decreased. As a result, the trend of new purchase orders is expected to increase.
He further said, 2024 seems to be the year for us to turn around. The January commodity export data released by EPB earlier this month also saw a record overall export earnings. A total of 5.72 billion 4.3 million dollars worth of goods were exported in January, which was never seen before. In that month, the growth was 11 and a half percent.
Bangladesh is in the second position in the world in garment exports, China is in the first position. Currently, Bangladesh’s share in the global market is 6.4 percent, while China’s share is slightly more than 31 percent.
According to EPB data, in the first seven months (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, the country exported goods worth 3,326,470,000 dollars, which is 2.52 percent more than the same period of the previous fiscal year. During July-January of the last financial year, the export amount was 3 thousand 244 crore 75 million dollars.
In the first seven months of the current financial year, the main export product, the garment sector, earned $2,836,310,000. Out of this, knitted garments (sweaters, t-shirts) were exported worth 1,618 million dollars and oven products (shirts, pants) amounted to 1,218,370,000 dollars. Garment exports increased by 3.45 percent during the period under discussion.
In addition, during July-January, other major export products such as jute and jute products 51 million dollars, home textiles 45 million 47 million dollars, footwear 29 million 62 million dollars, plastic products 14 million 13 million dollars, agricultural products 57 million 27 million dollars. , frozen fish worth $248.1 million and chemical products $202.2 million.
Recently in a meeting with textile and jute minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak at the secretariat, BGMEA president Farooq Hasan said that Bangladesh’s garment sector has come a long way amid various challenges in the last two years. In addition to traditional markets such as the UK and US, Japan, India, Australia, the Middle East has built a strong presence. As a result, the position of Bangladesh in the world market will be strengthened by at least 2 points.
Currently, Bangladesh is going through a crisis in the supply of gas required for industry. Farooq Hasan hopes that if this crisis is resolved, the export of clothing will increase.
