Bangladesh’s earnings from the readymade garment exports to 11 European Union countries declined in the first half of the current financial year 2015-16 compared with that in the same period of last financial year due to a devaluation of the euro against the US dollar. Export Promotion Bureau data showed that the earnings from 27-country EU block in the July-December period of the FY16 grew by 7.34 per cent to $7.83 billion from $7.30 billion in the same period of FY15. Exporters said that the export earnings from the EU in the first half of the current financial year were below expectation as the earnings fell in 11 countries in the zone. Besides the negative growth in 11 destinations, earnings from two other major EU countries –– Germany and France –– achieved minimal growth. Robust earnings from the UK and Spain, two other major markets for Bangladesh garment products, helped the country’s export earnings in the EU block to post 7.34 per cent growth in the period. The EPB data showed that the earnings from Germany grew by 1.18 per cent to $2.16 billion in the July-December period of FY16 from $2.13 billion in the same period of FY15. Bangladesh fetched $786.70 million in export earnings from France in the first half of FY16 with a 2.31-per cent growth. Earnings from the United Kingdom grew by 25.70 per cent to $1.61 billion in the July-December period of FY16 from $1.28 billion in the same period of FY15, according to the EPB data. The data showed that the earnings from Spain were $850.96 million with a 13.53-per cent growth in the period. On the other hand, despite healthy earnings growth in most of the non-traditional markets, the earnings witnessed negative growth in Turkey and Brazil in the first half of FY16, according to the EPB data. Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey are considered as non-traditional markets. Bangladesh fetched $2.01 billion from the non-traditional markets by exporting RMG products in the July-December period of FY16 which is 8.13 per cent higher than $1.86 billion in FY15. ‘The exports to EU increased in volume but earnings remained below expectation due to a depreciation of the euro against the dollar,’ Faruque Hassan, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age on Monday. He said that the RMG exporters had a plan to give drives in some potential markets including Russia, China and South Korea. ‘Trade delegations from Bangladesh will visit the countries and will select export products studying the markets,’ Faruque said. ‘We saw a hope of duty-free market access to Brazil but the initiative stopped halfway and now we are paying 30-35 per cent duty in the market,’ he said. The EPB data showed that the RMG export to Brazil decreased by 24.25 per cent to $75.18 million in the first half of FY16 from $99.25 million in the same period of FY15. Earnings from Turkey fell by 6.47 to $208.21 million in the July-December period of FY16. At the non-traditional markets, Bangladesh achieved highest 30.65 per cent export earnings growth in Australia with $309.37 million in the July-December period of FY16. Earnings from Japan stood $344.63 million with an 8.89-per cent growth in the first half of FY16, which is the highest amount among the non-traditional markets, the EPB data showed.
