Bangladesh’s apparel exports skyrocketed during the month of October, marking a growth of more than 20 per cent – due to rise in exports of both knitwear and woven garments.
According to latest data released by the Export Promotion Bureau, the July-October 2018 apparel exports registered at US $ 11.33 billion, a 20 per cent growth on a year to year (Y-to-Y) basis. It exceeded the strategic target of US $ 10 billion by over 11.5 per cent.
Notably, for the individual month of October, exports crossed US $ 3 billion mark – at US $ 3.14 billion. For September 2018, the export earnings from apparel exports amounted to US $ 2.46 billion, and in August 2018 US $ 2.71 billion.
HOW THIS GROWTH?
Further analysis by Apparel Resources marks out that knitwear fetched US $ 1.67 billion in October. The US $ 5.87 billion fetched during July-October 2018 marked 17.8 per cent gain. Exports in this segment crossed the strategic export target by nearly 17 per cent.
Woven garments fetched US $ 1.47 billion in October 2018. During July-October 2018, the segment fetched US $ 5.45 billion, marking a gain of over 22.6 per cent. It crossed the strategic export target by over 6 per cent.
In the holistic overview, apparel exports occupied over 84 per cent of Bangladesh’s export volume of October – which amounted to US $ 3.7 billion. Export performance for October 2018 was a huge 30.5 per cent leap on a year-to-year basis.
WHY THIS GROWTH?
According to what exporters and stakeholders are explaining, the growth is coming from two factors – a rise in export of Bangladesh’s apparel items due to winter and the buyers seeking out China plus sourcing strategy due to the trade war.
“The export items in October were winter garments in majority. This month too, there’re lots of orders of winter garments,” Mohammed Hatem, vice president for Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) told Apparel Resources.
Reflecting on whether the surge could be a consequence of the trade war, Hatem said: “Buyers are gradually moving away from China. The void this is creating is huge. We, who are next to China, still don’t have the capacity to fill that void.”