Country’s exports in July fetched $3.88 billion in earnings, posting the highest-ever proceeds in a single month thanks to increased shipments of readymade garment products. The export earnings in the first month of the current financial year of 2019-20 grew by 8.55 per cent year-on-year from $3.58 billion in the same month of last fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Tuesday. Earlier, the monthly highest earnings were recorded in May of FY19 with the exports worth $3.81 billion. Exporters said that export earnings in the month of July were the highest ever due to pre-Eid shipment rush and the growth in August would not be good as production remained suspended for 7-10 days due to Eid-ul-Azha holidays. Export earnings from the RMG sector in July, 2019 increased by 9.70 per cent to $3.31 billion from $3.01 billion in the same month of 2018. ‘Exports reach a peak during July and therefore it’s not unnatural for exports to grow in the month,’ Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Rubana Huq told reporters. She said that the China-US trade war was one of the causes for growing Bangladesh’s export. Earnings from woven garments grew by 9.51 per cent to $1.63 billion in July of FY20 from $1.49 billion in the same month of last fiscal year. Knitwear export in the first month of FY20 grew by 9.89 per cent to $1.67 billion from $1.52 billion in the same month of FY19. ‘I think it [the export growth] is the reflection of pre-Eid shipment rush, and the growth in August will not be good,’ BGMEA director Asif Ibrahim told New Age on Tuesday. Moreover, the strategic export target set by the government was 12 per cent and the earnings in the first month of FY20 missed the target, he said. ‘The growth in value terms gives a partial picture of the RMG trade and we should look at it from value-addition point of view,’ Asif added. The EPB data showed that export earnings from the country’s traditional export items, leather and leather products and jute and jute goods, witnessed a positive growth in the beginning of the financial year. Export earnings from leather and leather goods in July this year grew by 16.39 per cent to $106.10 million from $91.16 million in the same month of last year. Export earnings from leather-footwear increased by 9.22 per cent to $72.35 million while other leather products fetched $24.01 million with a 61.79-per cent growth in the period. Jute and jute goods exports in the first month of FY20 grew by 0.83 per cent to $74.88 million from $74.26 million in the same period of FY19. Earnings from the home textile export in July this year grew by 0.05 per cent to $66.09 million from $66.06 million in the same month of last year. Export earnings from agriculture products fell by 25.43 per cent to $77.19 million from $103.51 million. Export earnings from frozen and live fish increased by 1.54 per cent to $41.60 million while the shrimp export fell by 5.75 per cent to $33.44 million in the first month of FY20.
