This fiscal’s first month has experienced a 3.49 per cent drop in exports over this month a year ago, country’s export promotion body says. The items that witnessed lesser shipments include knitwear, woven garments, engine and electric goods, agricultural products, leather, tea and frozen food. The July exports of raw jute, jute goods (excluding carpet) and chemical products rose. Export Promotion Bureau data show the country fetched $2.53 billion in July this year, which was $2.62 billion in July 2015. The figure is nearly 25 per cent lesser than $3.37 billion target set for the month. Experts and trade leaders attribute such export-drop to a long Eid vacation and some other global factors. “Long Eid vacation and less competiveness may be the causes of export fall,” said Atiqul Islam, former BGMEA president. Production at readymade garment (RMG) factories remained closed for 7-10 days due to vacation on the Eid ul-Fitr. Islam said if the fall continues in August then it would be a matter of concern.A senior EPB official, however, said, “We are yet to finalise the August data but the trend shows export is reviving after experiencing a negative performance.”Official data show RMG exports declined 4.41 per cent to $2.11 billion in July, which was $2.22 billion in the same period a year earlier. The amount is 23.60 per cent lesser than the $3.03 billion target for the month. Knitwear products earned $1.07 billion with 4.45 per cent downswing, while woven fetched $1.04 billion, posting a 4.36 per cent fall.Bangladesh earned $28 billion from apparel exports last fiscal, contributing 82 per cent to the overall $34.25 billion exports. Another official of the apparel sector trade body said, “In June, there were more pressures on the workers to make the shipment ahead of Eid. As a result, some shipments scheduled for July was done in June. “He said some shipments were executed earlier caused less earnings in July while the vacation cast a shadow on production. In June, Bangladesh earned $3.58 billion, posting a 16.74 per cent growth compared to the earning in the same period a year ago.Leather and leather product exports saw 2.26 per cent fall to $92.50 million while leather footwear posted a 4.31 per cent negative growth to $49.70 million. Frozen food and fish exports posted a meagre fall by 0.11 percent to $37.77 million.Meanwhile, jute and jute goods exports achieved a moderate growth, riding on better performance of the raw jute sector. Earnings from jute and jute goods grew by 25.71 per cent to $69.77, while earnings from raw jute increased 74.30 per cent to $25.50 million.
