After five months, Bangladesh garment exports rose 6 percent in March

In July, the first month of the current financial year, the export of garment products from Bangladesh decreased by 1.96 percent. Sometimes the export was positive for two months. Then five months in a row is negative again. However, in the recently concluded March, exports have returned to the positive trend. Exports have increased by 7.12 percent.

According to data compiled by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and compiled by BGMEA, a total of 228.17 million was exported to the international market in March this year. In July last year, garments worth 215 crore 3 lakh 30 thousand dollars were exported. As a result, exports have increased by 6.12 percent.

According to the EPB, in the first month of the current financial year, the growth in garment exports was negative 1.98 percent. The growth in the next two months was positive. In August the growth was 2.56 percent and in September it was 3.9 percent. The growth for the next five months was negative. From October to February, the growth rates were negative 7.8, 2.8, 9.89, 5.63 and 5.81 percent respectively. Last March, the export growth was 7.12 percent positive.

According to the data compiled by BGMEA, garment exports in the first nine months of the current financial year (July-March) amounted to 2,331.47 million dollars. During the same period of the last financial year, the amount of export was 2,399 crore 8 lakh 50 thousand dollars. As a result, in the first nine months of the current financial year, compared to the same period of the last financial year, the export has decreased by 2.75 percent.

As the second largest supplier of garments in the world, the owners and workers of the garment industry in Bangladesh have suffered a lot from the global outbreak of Kavid-19. According to BGMEA, a sector-owned company, the first wave of Kavid has led to the cancellation of about সো 3.5 billion in purchases by April last year. Public and private export figures also support the slowdown in garment exports. The people concerned say that the effect of Kavid is the reason for the miserable export.

According to the EPB and BGMEA data collected from the NBR, Bangladesh has exported a total of 2,631 crores worth of garments to the world market in the last 12 months of 2020. Garment exports in 2019 were worth 3,293 crore. As a result, exports fell 16 percent or more than 571 million. This amount of dollars has been lost due to the impact of covid.

The covid-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China at the end of December 2019. Between February and March 2020, it spread to most countries of the world. Under the influence of Corona, the country’s ready-made garment sector first faced a crisis in the supply of raw materials. This is because about 70 per cent of the oven products in the garment sector are imported from China. The country imports 15-20 percent of its raw material. Later, although the supply of raw materials began to slow down, the demand crisis at export destinations was created.