Bangladesh’s apparel industry ended fiscal year 2017-18 on a high, touching the US $ 30 billion export target, as pledged by the apparel manufacturers and exporters.
According to the latest data from the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, the US $ 30.6 billion earning was an impressive 8.76 per cent gain on a year-to-year basis, exceeding the strategic export target of US $ 30.1 billion by 1.51 per cent. During fiscal 2016-17, the apparel export amount was US $ 28.15 billion.
Data shows, June 2018 was a bumper year for the apparel makers as this period fetched US $ 3.36 billion. During this month, the US $ 3 billion export was crossed for the first time. Last month, in May, the apparel exports fetched US $ 2.82 billion.
As analysed by Apparel Resources, knitwear exports fetched a total of US $ 15.18 billion during the fiscal and US $ 1.54 billion during July. Knitwear exports jumped a whopping 10.4 per cent on a year-to-year basis, the target set by the manufacturers. Last May, the knitwear exports fetched US $ 1.43 billion.
On the other hand, woven exports fetched US $ 15.42 billion during fiscal 2017-18, and US $ 1.821 billion during July. For woven, the export growth was still high at 7.18 per cent against the backdrop of US $ 14.4 billion export last fiscal. Last May, the woven exports amounted to US $ 1.42 billion.
Meanwhile, the total export performance during 2017-18 was US $ 36.67 billion and the apparel exports, as usual, occupied 83 per cent of the total export target. However, the total export fell short of the government-set target by 2.2 per cent. For June, the total export was US $ 2.9 billion – what fell drastically short of the export target by 18.87 per cent.
It is to be noted that Bangladesh’s apparel makers are putting out their best to touch the US $ 50 billion export mark by 2021. As a short-term target, they were determined to reach the US $ 30 billion mark during fiscal 2017-18, and they did.
