Germany and USA have been top two export destinations for Bangladesh. But, it always remains uncertain which country stays ahead in terms of apparel shipments coming from the second largest apparel exporter in the world until its financial year ends. The same trend continued in July – February period of Bangladesh’s FY 2019 when USA marginally surpassed Germany with US $ 4,095.67 million worth of apparel import from Bangladesh, while latter imported US $ 4,066.97 million worth of apparels.
USA grew 17.69 per cent on Y-o-Y basis, while growth of Germany restricted to just 10 per cent in first 8-month period of FY 2019. Notably, in the corresponding period of FY 2018, Germany stayed ahead with US $ 3,696.69 million apparel import value, while the USA could just import apparels valued at US $ 3,479.96 million.
As far as Germany is concerned, import of knitted apparels from Bangladesh was way ahead than that of woven apparels. Knitted apparels shipment to Germany valued at US $ 2,301.25 million (up 6.47%), while the shipment of woven apparels stood at US $ 1,765.22 million, marking 15 per cent growth on the yearly note.
On the other hand, USA saw complete opposite trend as woven apparel import was more than knitted segment. Against US $ 1,006.32 million (up 10.22%) worth of knitted apparels that entered USA from Bangladesh, woven apparel import was almost three times more than knitted and valued at US $ 3,089.35 million, hitting 20.35 per cent growth on Y-o-Y basis.
The reason of USA staying ahead in the review period was probably the shift of buyers towards countries other than China due to Chinese New Year holidays and Donald Trump’s protectionist measures for import coming from China. The opportunity was well grabbed by Bangladesh.
It’s worth mentioning here that in the said period, Bangladesh clocked US $ 23.12 billion in its apparel exports, surging 14.17 per cent on yearly basis.