Bangladesh earns a mere US $ 366.5 million last month from apparel exports compared to what was US $ 2.42 billion in the same period last year.
A powerhouse in garment manufacturing and exports and second only to China in terms of global dominance in apparel exports, Bangladesh is going through some tough times.
The country’s total apparel export in April this year was a mere US $ 366.5 million, compared to what was US $ 2.42 billion in the same period last year.
This means that Bangladesh’s apparel exports have taken a nosedive of massive 85 per cent!
The apex garment manufacturers’ body of the country, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) on Sunday revealed this, citing data from Bangladesh’s National Board of Revenue (NBR).
The large-scale order cancellations by the global buyers, which according to some accounts stand at a staggering US $ 3 billion, seem to be having a devastating impact on the readymade garment manufacturing sector of the country.
“It was estimated that the RMG export in April would decline by 70-80 per cent as economic activities on both the supply and the demand sides were disrupted due to the pandemic,” said Executive Director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh Ahsan H. Mansur, who expressed apprehensions that apparel exports in May too could remain the same as lots of orders have been cancelled while the volume of new orders was not enough to bring about any substantial change in overall exports and revenue earnings.
Further, as per the country’s Export Promotion Bureau, apparel exports in March this year fell by 30.19 per cent to US $ 1.97 billion from what was US $ 2.82 billion in the period of 2019.
