Bangladesh’s apparel shipments to the United States, its single largest export destination in 2023, declined 25% year on year to $7.29 billion due to high inflation caused by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the US was $9.72 billion in 2022, according to the US Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (Otexa) data.
The data also mentioned that the country’s overall apparel imports also declined 22.04 % year on year to $77.84 billion, while the import value was $99.86 billion a year ago.
In terms of volume, Bangladesh RMG export to the USA in 2023 also plunged about 28% to 2.25 billion square metres from 3.13 billion square metres in 2022, according to the Otexa data.
Talking to The Business Standard, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association President Faruque Hassan said that the global apparel market was very volatile in 2023 as every country has reduced their imports due to high inflation driven by the Russia-Ukraine war.
He said that the largest apparel importer country – the US – also decreased their consumption due to the high inflation in 2023.
He said Bangladesh was not the only country which experienced negative growth in apparel export to the US market; every exporting country had the same experience in 2023.
The BGMEA president hoped that this market will be better in the coming days.
He also mentioned that the US inflation and interest would be stable, which may help the market rebound in coming months.
The share of Bangladeshi apparel in the US market was about 10% in in 2022, while it fell to 9.37% last year.
However, Bangladesh’s position remained unchanged as the third-largest apparel exporter to the US market after China and Vietnam, which occupied their positions with 20.96% and 18.21% share respectively.
The OTEXA data showed, in 2023, Chinese apparel export to the USA fell 10.83% to $16.32 billion from $21.75 billion a year ago.
Vietnam and India’s apparel exports in 2023 decreased 22.29% and 21.42% respectively.
Indonesia and Cambodia’s apparel export to the United States fell 25.19% and 23.58% respectively in the year.
