The after-effects of coronavirus outspread have hit the apparel trade badly! Canada, one of the emerging apparel markets in the world which has over US $ 28 billion worth of apparel market size, has been failing to cope with the low consumer spending and closed retail stores amidst COVID-19, resulting in declining apparel imports. The country’s apparel import shrunk to US $ 333.68 billion in May ’20 as against US $ 724.26 in May ’19, falling massively by 53.93 per cent on Y-o-Y basis. All major Asian exporting destinations continued declining in their respective apparel exports to Canada including China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. China, the largest apparel exporter to Canada, fell 46.35 per cent in May ’20 over May ’19 to ship US $ 125.64 million worth of garments to the North American country. Bangladesh, which was the second top exporter to Canada last year in May, has been surpassed by Vietnam and Cambodia in May ’20 due to drastic fall of 74.16 per cent and export valued at US $ 26.76 million. Vietnam clocked US $ 42.92 million in its apparel exports to Canada in May ’20, noting 41.84 per cent yearly fall. Cambodia, on the other hand, tapped US $ 36.20 million in May ’20 and fell 37.93 per cent over May ’19. India’s dismal performance continued even in the Canadian market as the country declined significantly by 80.82 per cent to ship just US $ 6.19 million worth of garments in May ’20 as compared to US $ 32.26 million in May ’19.
