In the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, products worth $9.37 billion have been exported with 9.12 percent growth comparing the same period last year. Overall merchandise exports have been on a positive trend so far in the current fiscal, mainly due to growth in readymade garments exports.
In the first two months of the current fiscal year, 85 percent of the total merchandise exports came from the readymade garment sector. Garments worth $7.99 billion have been exported. This export is 12.46 percent more than last year.
Within the readymade garment sector, knitted garments worth $4.58 billion and woven garments worth $3.41 billion were exported. During this period, the growth in the export of knitwear has been 17 percent and woven clothing is 6.86 percent.
BGMEA, analyzing the EPB data said that the export of ready-made garments was worth $3.95 billion in July last year with 14.43 percent growth. However, the growth slowed to 7.99 percent in August and $4.04 billion worth of ready-made garments were exported which is 84.52% of the total merchandise exports of $4.78 billion in August.
In August, knitwear contributed $2.31 billion and woven contributed $1.72 billion, according to provisional data released by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on Monday.
Shahidullah Azim, vice president, BGMEA, told the media, “The search for new orders has increased more than before. Still, there is little chance of improvement in garment export situation till next December. We hope that exports will increase from January.”
Apart from the apparel sector, some sectors such as the home textile, leather and leather products jute and jute goods exports experienced negative growth in August.
Home textile exports recorded a negative growth of over 60% to $68.31 million in August, as against $172.57 million in the same period last year, EPB data showed. Jute and jute goods sector experienced a 19.32% negative growth to $74.79 million worth of exports.
Exports of leather and leather products declined by 22.40% year-on-year to $96.08 million. The sector had revenue of $123.82 million in the same month last fiscal.
