Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh’s export performance took a beating after the country’s export earnings in the just concluded year of 2020 fell by 14.57 per cent to US $ 33.60 billion from what was US $ 39.33 billion in the previous year.
This is principally consequent to lower shipment of apparel products — apparel brings home the lion’s share of export earnings — due to the COVID-19 outbreak which has hit hard the global business, claimed reports adding the country’s export receipts were the lowest in 5 years.
As per the data released by the country’s Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) on 4 January (Monday), the garment export in 2020 decreased by 16.94 per cent to US $ 27.47 billion from that of US $ 33.07 billion in 2019.
The data showed that out of the US $ 27.47 billion earnings from RMG in 2020, US $ 11.92 billion came in the January-June period and US $ 15.54 billion in the July-December period.
Further, earnings from knitwear export in the first half of FY 21 even though increased by 3.90 per cent to US $ 8.52 billion from what was US $ 8.20 billion in the same period of FY20, export earnings from woven garments, reportedly, fell by 10.22 per cent to US $ 7.02 billion in July-December of FY21 from what was US $ 7.81 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media, President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Dr. Rubana Huq, reportedly, underlined that since June 2020, woven garment export has posted the worst performance in December as it declined by 18.07 per cent while Managing Director of Giant Group, Faruque Hassan, on his part, reportedly, underlined last year was an abnormal year for the global economy and went on to add that the crisis deepened further as the second wave of the pandemic compelled several countries in Europe and the US to go into fresh lockdowns.
“Thus, we lost our exports,” Faruque underlined.
However, export earnings from home textiles increased by 47.93 per cent to US $ 547.48 million in July-December of FY21 from that of US $ 370.10 million in the same period of FY20 even as earnings from leather footwear exports in the 6 months of FY21 fell by 1.98 per cent to US $ 278.69 million from US $ 284.33 million, while other leather products registered 10.30 per cent negative growth in the period.
