Earlier this month I sent you a summary of the RMG export performance for the year 2021 and the preceding four years. Today I am sharing an analysis of the country-wise RMG export for the period 2017-2021. As we completed the year 2021 with 30.36% growth, it is reflected in the growth of all the markets respectively.
It’s encouraging that the share of our export to the USA, the single largest market, has risen consistently in the last 4 years, that is from 17.75% in 2018 to 20.30% in 2021. RMG export to the USA in 2021 reached 7.28 billion dollars, out of which woven garment export was 4.65 billion dollars, and knitwear export was 2.62 billion dollars. This is the first time RMG export to the USA exceeded 7 billion dollars in a year. During 2021, RMG export to the USA grew by 43.62% compared to 2020. In the year of COVID, RMG export to the USA went down to 5.07 billion dollars.
EU accounts for 50.07% of our exports (excluding the U.K.). Looking back over the last five years, our export to the European Union was 18.69 billion dollars in 2017 (including the U.K.) which reached 20.58 billion dollars in 2018, and 20.42 billion dollars in 2019 subsequently. In 2020, due to COVID, export declined to 17.02 billion dollars. But in 2021, export to the EU reached 21.74 billion dollars (17.93 billion dollars excluding the U.K.) with 27.74% growth year over year.
Among the EU member states, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, and Poland showed stronger positive growth in 2021. Export to Germany crossed the 6 billion dollars level for the first time as export grew by 26.64%. Export to the third-largest market for our RMG, UK reached 3.81 billion dollars in the same year. Export to Canada also increased by 28.46% from 865.17 million in 2020 to 1.12 billion dollars in 2021.
Non-traditional markets which are strategically the most important source of our growth to sustain also have shown promising growth. The Y-o-Y comparison shows that the export to the non-traditional markets increased by 25.75% in 2021. In 2017, the RMG export to non-traditional markets was 4.29 billion dollars which reached 5.7 billion dollars in 2021. Out of 5.7 billion dollars exported to non-traditional markets, the woven garment export was 2.54 billion dollars and knitwear was 3.14 billion dollars. Among the major non-traditional markets, Japan remains the largest one with 1.03 billion dollars with a growth of 17.22% in 2021. The export to other non-traditional markets such as Australia, South Korea, Russia, India, and Mexico also increased remarkably. However, export to Brazil, China, and Turkey has declined in contrast probably due to the faltering recovery from the pandemic and impact on these economies. In fact, Asia looks absolutely promising for us as we can clearly notice the upward trend of export to emerging markets like Japan, China, India, South Korea. Besides, the Government of Bangladesh has sent an official proposal to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) comprising of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan. This is a timely move by the government as we are transiting to a developing country. The impact of the LDC graduation is not only a concern for the EU GSP but also about the LDC preferential access to Canada, Australia, Japan, China, South Korea, India which will end after 2026.
Though in the last few years, we have made tremendous progress in terms of new markets exploration. But up until now, diversification in export items and export destinations has always been very narrow in Bangladesh RMG. From BGMEA, we have re-started our efforts to explore non-traditional markets under the apparel diplomacy campaign. Well, the emergence of the new variant of COVID is a challenge for us, yet in the coming days, we planned to organize a number of ‘made in Bangladesh’ roadshows to regions like the Middle East (UAE, Qatar, Bahrain); Asia which includes Japan, Korea, China and India; Iraq; Russia; and a follow-up visit to Latin American countries where we started our campaign back in 2009. Our objective will be to highlight our industry in those markets, establish contacts and networks, engage with similar organizations to promote trade, identify problems and advance the discussion on market access.
In addition to these efforts, we are also working on exploring the untapped potentials in our existing markets. To sustain our growth, we need to enter into the high value-added market segment. For that, we need to concentrate on producing high-end products. We need to upgrade our production process by investing in modern technology. In business and trade, backward and forward linkages will be the most crucial factor for us to stay competitive. So, we need to invest in the backward and forward linkage industries. At the same time, we should also explore the potential of the digital marketplace. BGMEA is initiating a study on the potential of the digital marketplace which we believe will shed light on how we should prepare for this.
