In the 11th month of the current fiscal year (July-May), apparel exports were worth $43.85 bn, which is 2.86 percent higher than the same period of the previous fiscal year 2022-23. This information is known from a report of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) published recently.
According to EPB data, knit products exported during this period were worth $24.70 bn. In this case, the growth is 6.15 percent. On the other hand, the export of woven garments was $19.14 bn, which is 1.09 percent less than the previous year. However, as single month, May saw a major shock in apparel exports. Apparel export in May of the current fiscal year is $3.36 bn which is 17.03 percent less than $4.05 bn of same period of last fiscal year.
President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) SM Mannan (Kochi) said that recently due to inflation in the world economy and increase in interest rates to control it, the purchasing power of consumers has decreased. As a result, apparel retail sales and imports declined. US global apparel imports fell by 7.18 percent and Europe by 12.84 percent in the January-March period.
Mohammad Hatem, Executive President of BKMEA, said that the growth in export earnings is expected to be negative, because now the work orders are low. On the other hand, we are not able to accept the work orders due to increase in production cost. On the one hand, buyers are not paying fair prices for the products. The cost of production has increased due to the increase in the price of electricity, gas and other services. As a result, we cannot survive in price competition.
He said, because of the dollar crisis, it takes a long time to open the LC. As a result, global buyers are placing fewer orders due to increase lead times. Apart from this, it is difficult to deliver our products on time due to customs harassment.
Declining apparel exports in May hit overall export earnings. In May, exports of goods totaled 4.07 billion dollars, which is 16 percent less than the same period last year. However, in the first 11 months (July to May) of the current fiscal year, overall exports worth $51.54 billion which is 2.01 percent higher than the export of $50.30 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
