As per the statistics compiled by BGMEA from the EPB’s export data, the overall RMG export grew by 14.06% during the mentioned period of time on a year-on-year comparison. During the mentioned 8 months period, Bangladesh’s RMG export to the world was US$ 31.36 billion which is 84.58% of total national export.
The export earnings from knitwear fetched US$17.06 billion, while woven garments fetched US$14.30 billion with 13.21% and 15.08% year-over-year growth respectively.
During the month of February 2023, RMG export stood at US $3.94billion with 12.31% year-on-year growth which was the lowest export within the last consecutive four months (from November to February). Because in the months of November, December, and January, we have seen more than US$4.3 billion RMG export which has come down to below 4 billion in February.
As our exports are increasing in monetary terms, it’s important to note that in recent years we have got significant investments in backward linkage and high-end sophisticated fashion items like jackets, active wear and suits. Some of our large factories are manufacturing and exporting high-end items which were the key drivers behind the growth. Another fact is that our export to non-traditional markets is increasing quite significantly which is a promising side of the industry.
Due to the global geopolitical tensions and predicted economic slowdown, the fashion business is suffering in our major markets. Therefore export may keep some growth in coming months, this will be mainly because of value based growth due to the industry’s progression to higher unit value items, not quantity growth.
