Woven garment once again emerged as the country’s biggest export-earning product in the just-concluded fiscal year (FY) 2014-15, surpassing knitwear items. The sub-sector of the $ 25 billion clothing industry has made a jump, outshining the growth of knit products in the last fiscal as its demand surged due to the GSP (generalised system of preferences) facility offered by the EU, industry people said. Export of woven garment fetched US$ 13.06 billion in FY 2014-15, up by 5.0 per cent as compared to that of the previous fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). During the period, knit earnings stood at $ 12.42 billion, marking a 3.13 per cent growth. Knitwear has become the top export earning product since the fiscal year 2008. But woven became the country’s top export-earning product in the fiscal year 2011-12 with earnings of $ 9.60 billion while knit earned $ 9.48 billion. The export growth of knit product, however, was 0.05 per cent in the fiscal year 2011-12. Since then, woven items have sustained its top position. Industry people said over the decade, the growth of both the sectors was more or less equal and knit products dominated as the top foreign currency earner. But from the fiscal 2011-12, woven products started outshining the knit items’ growth, they added. Analysts and exporters said the country’s woven garment exports grew mainly due to the revised rules of origin by the European Union since January 2011. “The export volume of the woven segment beat the knitwear as the revised rules of origin have been facilitating the woven garment exporters,” Fazlul Haq, former president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), told the FE. Under the revised EU rules of origin, clothing exporters can enjoy duty-free access to the European Union even if they source fabrics from other countries, said Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of Envoy Group. Orders for woven items, especially jacket, shifted to Bangladesh from China, he said. Though the growth of the overall apparel exports slowed down in the last fiscal, performance of woven items is comparatively better considering all the situations including tragic industrial incidents like Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza building collapse that seriously tarnished the image of the country, he explained. Md Hatem, former vice-president of BKMEA, said the existing energy crisis is an extra burden for the sector as the dyeing units fully depend on gas. Locally-made knit products have recently got single-stage GSP facility in Japan. It means that knitwear exports from Bangladesh are now enjoying zero tariffs even if the products are made of imported fabrics, industry people said. The demand for knitwear products in the new destinations is very high, but the volume is too low to influence the overall export of the same, they added.
