Bangladesh Largest Shipper Of Cotton Apparels To UK

Bangladesh has become the largest exporter of apparels made from cotton to the UK in 2021, and is followed by China in second place.

Shipments of exports of cotton clothing to UK from the South Asian country reached $1.95 billion in 2021, thereby gaining a market share of 21.9 percent, which is double the market share of China.

A report drafted by the Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) agency also informed that China’s cotton garment exports to UK touched $910 million in 2021, with a market share of 10.2 percent.

However, Bangladesh comes in second place in overall exports of apparel to the UK. The first position is held by China.

The study was done to explore opportunities to increase the country’s exports from the recent UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

DCTS will continue to give Bangladeshi exporters duty free access to the UK market, once the least developed country (LDC) status gets over in 2026

Helped by DCTS, the RAPID study projected overall clothing exports from Bangladesh to the UK would total $11 billion by 2030.

But while Bangladesh doubled its overall garment UK market share to 14 percent between 2001 and 2021, China’s market share fell to 21 percent in 2021 from 37 percent in 2001.