Bangladesh’s earnings by exporting readymade garments to the United States in January-February of 2021 fell by 13.11 per cent as the consumption of apparel items still remains low due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The country’s apparel export to the US, the largest export destination for Bangladesh, in the first two months of 2021 fell by $151 million to $1 billion from $1.15 billion in the same period of 2020, according to data released by the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel. Exporters said that the RMG export to the US market decreased in value more than the volume of export. The data showed that Bangladesh’s RMG export to the US in January-February of 2021 decreased by 3.94 per cent in terms of quantity while the export decreased by 13.11 per cent in terms of value. Bangladesh’s apparel export to the US in the first two months of 2021 decreased by 16 million square metres to 393 million square metres from 409 million square metres in the same period of 2020. Rubana Huq, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that the price trend continued to worsen as the export markets were still struggling to contain the spread of the virus. ‘The average decline in unit price of apparel for July-March 2020-21 compared to July-March 2018-19 was 3.58 per cent. Such consecutive declines in unit price do not require further analysis to understand the magnitude of vulnerability the industry is dwelling with,’ she said. According to the OTEXA data, the total apparel import by the US from the world in January-February of 2021 dropped by 13.84 per cent to $10.91 billion from $12.67 billion in the same period of the previous year. The US apparel import from China in January-February of 2021 declined by 9.22 per cent to $2.45 billion from $2.70 billion in the same period of the previous year. Vietnam’s RMG export to the US in the first two month of 2021 fell by 12.09 per cent to $2.09 billion from $2.38 billion in the same period of 2020. RMG import by the US from Cambodia in January-February 2021 decreased by 14.08 per cent to $451 million from $524 million in the same period of the previous year, the data showed. US apparel import from India in the two months of 2021 fell by 21.89 per cent to $594 million.
