Bangla Garment Exports Rise 5.44% in Jan-May 2023

Bangladesh garment exports in the first five months of 2023 rose 5.44 percent year on year to touch US $19.63 billion. However, clothing shipments to EU grew slower at 2.98 percent from a year ago, during the same period and reached $9.71 billion.

“While exports to Italy, Spain and France grew at a faster pace, those to Germany, Poland, Latvia, Malta, Lithuania, and Slovenia slowed down in the period under review,” a BGMEA report informed.

Exports to Italy showed promising growth at 30.63 percent between January and May 2023, while those to France and Spain expanded 13.99 and 20 percent respectively, when compared with same months of 2022.

Particularly, export to the Germany, the largest export destination for us in EU, declined by 18.53 percent to $2.58 billion in the period under consideration

During the first five months of 2023, export to the US decreased 11.74 percent year-over-year to $3.46 billion, while those to UK and Canada also registered growth at 12.46 percent and 6.38 percent, respectively.

At the same time, exports to non-traditional market increased significantly by 33.34 percent to reach $3.64 billion from $2.73 billion in January to May 2022. Currently, the share of non-traditional market in the garment export basket is 18.57 percent.

Among the major non-traditional markets, exports to the top market Japan has shown year on year growth at 49.55 percent, while those to Australia, India, China, South Korea, Brazil and Turkey rose 55.88 percent, 41.83 percent, 39.85 percent, 22.45 percent, 92.25 percent and 33.60 percent.

BGMEA said few major markets such as UAE, Russia and Chile have shown negative growth at 8.67 percent, 0.69 percent and 19.91 percent, respectively.

The trade body added that the industry is giving utmost priority on diversifying markets, not only to ensure sustained export growth and reduce overconcentration, but also as a strategy to prepare for losing the Least Developed Country (LDC) status in November 2026.

In July 2023, BGMEA is organising the Bangladesh Apparel Summit in Melbourne, Australia considering the importance of the market as well as to open dialogue on post- LDC market access issues.