Bangladesh’s RMG Export to World

Over the past five years, Bangladesh’s apparel export to European Union (EU) has increased by 11.02% annually (CAGR, 2018-2022).  Our export to the EU was US$ 16.83 billion in 2018 and US$ 16.58 billion in 2019. In 2020, due to Covid, export declined to US$ 13.92 billion and then increased to US$ 17.93 billion in 2021. In 2022 RMG export to EU increased by 28.49% compared 2021 and reached US$ 23.04 billion; which was our highest ever export to the EU region in a year. Such growth is not absolutely in terms of quantity, rather in monetary value which is caused by unusual hike in input costs and inflation.

Exports to most of the major EU markets, including Germany, France, Spain Italy, and Poland, have shown strong positive growth in 2022. Export to Germany continued to grow and reached US$ 7.28 billion with 17.62% Y-o-Y growth. Export to Spain, France, Italy and Poland reached US$ 3.27 billion, US$ 2.74 billion, US$ 2.01 billion, and US$ 1.83 billion respectively.

In 2022, RMG export to the U.K. increased by 24.69 % and reached US$ 4.75 billion; which was US$ 3.74 billion in 2018.

In U.S. market, our RMG export was US$ 5.84 billion in 2018 which become almost double in 2022. During this time, export to USA reached US$ 9.05 billion with 24.48% growth compared to 2021. Export to Canada also increased by 34.76% from US$ 1.11 billion in 2021 to US$ 1.49 billion in 2022.

The Y-o-Y comparison shows that export to the non-traditional markets increased by 29.56% in 2022. In 2018, the RMG export to non-traditional markets was US$ 5.44 billion which reached up to US$ 7.35 billion in 2022 with 10.60% CAGR. Among the major non-traditional markets, export to Japan was US$ 1.32 billion in 2022 with 28.64% Y-O-Y growth. Export to other non-traditional markets like India, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Australia increased remarkably by 61.49%, 118.39%, 60.43%, 61.98%, 40.87% and 21.49% respectively in 2022 compared to 2021. On the other hand, our export to China and Russia declined by 1.10% and 38.47% respectively in 2022.

This is the overall growth scenario of RMG export in our major markets. Since the global economic outlook indicates slowdown in 2023, inflation hits the record in our major markets, our export to major countries might be affected in coming days.

At this stage, our strategic priority should be to stay on course and explore avenues to improve efficiency and opportunities through innovation and diversification. Especially with covid-19 exposing the vulnerabilities of over-dependence has made the issue of market diversification crucial than ever.

Our apparel diplomacy efforts keep continuing as we plan to organize roadshows in strategically important places. Our aim is to highlight on how Bangladesh is getting prepared with all its sustainability transformation and investments in technologies, greener and cleaner production, and product up-gradation.

Export Value in Million US$