In a shocker, while Bangladesh has registered negative growth in most categories, including its strength products like T-shirts and trousers, the country has registered a positive increase in value of exports to the US in ladies’ dresses of a whooping 18.82 per cent in the review period of January-August 2020 as against the same period in 2019.
The volumes are surprisingly up by only 3.97 per cent, which raises questions as to what this could mean in real terms!
The US market, like in most other categories, saw huge fall in value of imports in ladies’ dresses of 33.08 per cent in the review period, while the volumes were down 30.08 per cent.
Even countries like India and Vietnam which consider the category a strength product saw downfall in both values and volumes.
Of course, the actual quantity size in export of dresses by Bangladesh is much less than other competitors, so even a small change reflects in a big way. But what is obvious is that basic dresses are in more demand than those being produced by design- and PD-rich countries like India and Vietnam.
While India registered a downfall of 23.64 per cent in value in the Jan-August 2020 period as against the same period last year, the volumes were down 24.58 per cent.
On the same note, Vietnam could not arrest the downfall in ladies’ dresses and while the values were down by 20.78 per cent, the volumes declined by 20.92 per cent.
Not surprising, China was a major loser in the category with 47.55 per cent decline in value of exports in the category and 41.63 per cent decrease in quantities during the 8-month month period under review.
