Export earnings from the Turkey market dropped by 19.50 per cent to $581.25 million in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year due to a devaluation of the euro as well as the Turkish currency lira, dashing the exporters’ hope of getting another billion-dollar-market. Bangladesh’s export earnings from Turkey in the July-April period of the financial year 2013-14 were $722.12 million, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data. Following the imposition of safeguard duties by Turkey on readymade garment imports from Bangladesh, country’s (Bangladesh’s) export earnings had witnessed a drastic fall in the FY 2011-12. Export earnings in FY12 had decreased by 64.26 per cent to $258.90 million against $724.45 million in the FY11, data showed. Overcoming the hassle of safeguard duties, Bangladesh’s exports rebounded in the Turkey market in the FY 2012-13. In the FY 2012-13, the export earnings from Turkey grew by 146.35 per cent to $637.81 million from $258.90 million in the FY12. The earnings in the FY 2013-14 increased to $856.19 million and the exporters expected that Turkey would be a billion-dollar-market in the FY 2014-15. According to the EPB data, the export of RMG, the major product, to Turkey in the first 10 months of the financial year 2014-15 decreased by 25.95 per cent to $388.04 million against $524.02 million in the same period of FY 2013-14. Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, managing director of Evince Garments Ltd, said the domestic consumption in Turkey decreased a bit due to a fall in the value of euro. In last one year, the Turkish currency lira depreciated by 2 per cent against the euro and about 20 per cent against the dollar that increased cost in import for the country, he said. Parvez, also a former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, exports shirts to Turkey. ‘Amid the depreciation of local currency, Turkey usually will prefer local production to import,’ he said. ‘Despite having potentials in the Turkey market, our export witnessed a negative growth in the market due to depreciation of euro as well as lira,’ said Faruque Hassan, managing director of Giant Group. He said that due to devaluation of local currency production cost in Turkey became cheaper than import and so the country started to utilise their capacity in production. Depreciation of euro is one of the reasons for the negative export growth in Turkey as the payments between Bangladesh and Turkey are settled in euro, said Faruque, also a former vice-president of the BGMEA.
Source: https://newagebd.net/121323/turkish-market-for-bdesh-garment-on-the-wane/#sthash.xPWyJoNp.dpuf
