Exports of readymade garments to 11 non-traditional markets grew by 28.75 per cent year-on-year in the just concluded financial year standing at $2.97 billion,
showed Export Promotion Bureau data.
Experts and exporters said it was a good sign that the export of RMG products, the main export item of the country, was gradually increasing on the new markets.
After a robust 73.26 per cent growth of export of RMG products in the financial year 2010–2011 in the 11 countries — 
Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey — growth dipped to 23.17 per cent in the FY 12.
But, the exports in the countries rebounded in the FY 13 as the garment manufacturers increased their focus on those countries because of economic slowdown on the traditional markets in Europe and the United States.
The overall RMG export growth in all markets was 12.71 per cent in FY 13 against 6.56 per cent in FY 12.
The non-traditional markets might be the great future for Bangladesh because of the large number of people in those countries, said the exporters.
The apparel exporters expect that the export to the non-traditional markets will be doubled in a few years as the export earnings witnessed a significant growth in the just concluded financial year.
Of the total export to non-traditional markets, woven items fetched $1.48 billion with 26.89 per cent growth while knitwear amounted to $1.49 billion with 30.66 per cent growth.
Export to the Russian market stood at $139.55 million with highest 42.44 per cent growth, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau and Research, Development and Trade Information cell of the BGMEA.
The garment export association sent a number of delegations to Russia last year to grab more share of the country’s market.
Despite imposing safeguard duty on imported products from Bangladesh, Turkish market rebounded and the export earnings increased to $415.31million in the FY 13 from $355.93 million in the FY 12.
Among the 11 new destinations, only Turkey had registered negative growth in the FY 12 as the Turkish government had imposed 17.5 per cent safeguard duty on imported products from Bangladesh.
RMG exports to India also increased to $75 million in the FY 13 from $55 million in the FY 12 as the exporters had started to get the benefit of duty-free market access given by the country in September 2011.
In 2007, RMG exporters of Bangladesh had started exploring the new markets.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman told New Age that it was an encouraging sign that the business of Bangladesh was increasing rapidly on the non-traditional markets.
The new destinations might be the big markets in future as the south-south trade potential have been increasing, he said.
‘Now we have to pay attention to the South America and Africa and the stakeholders have to play a big role to expand the new markets,’ Mustafiz said.
He said, ‘The new markets exploring is not only helping us for market diversification but also for the product diversification.’
Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim also told New Age that the export growth of readymade garment to the non-traditional market was an encouraging sign.
‘We expect that the export to the new markets will be doubled in few years and the export to China will reach $1-billion mark as well,’ he said.
The RMG export to China fetched $139.14 million in the FY 13.
He said the apparel exporters should continue to explore new markets as the non-traditional markets could help the sector eliminate the risk in some traditional markets.
‘At present, the country’s RMG export depends only on a few selected markets which may bring severe risk for the sector. For the sake of sustainable growth market diversification is a must,’ Azim said.
-With New Age input
