Readymade garment export to the non-traditional markets in the first half of the current financial year soared by 37.27 per cent to $1.36 billion against $996.89 million of the same period of the last financial year 2012-13, Export Promotion Bureau data showed.
Terming the export growth encouraging, exporters said that the market diversification was the key option for Bangladesh to diminish the dependency on export to the traditional two regions — the EU and the US.
They hoped that the non-traditional markets mainly China, Japan and Russia would be the big alternative destinations of Bangladeshi RMG products in the future as the domestic consumption of those countries was huge.
Of the total export in six months to the non-traditional markets, woven items fetched $743.96 million with 49.68 per cent growth while knitwear amounted to $624.46 million with 24.93 per cent growth.
Despite imposing safeguard duty on imported products from Bangladesh, the Turkish market rebounded and the export earnings from it in the first half of the FY14 increased to $334.72 million with highest 106.57 per cent growth from $163.04 million in the same period of the FY13.
RMG export to Russia in the first six months of current financial year amounted to $93.93 million with 72.86 per cent growth from $54.34 million in the same period of last financial year, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau and Research, Development and Trade Information cell of the BGMEA.
The overall RMG export growth in all markets was 19.96 per cent standing $11.93 billion in the first six months of the FY14 against $ 9.94 billion in the same period of the FY13.
RMG export to Japan increased by 36.95 per cent in the first six months of the current financial year and the earnings stood at $297 million from $216.87 million in the same period of the FY13.
Export earnings from Australia fetched $208.60 million with 4.09 per cent growth which is the third highest export earnings from non-traditional markets.
RMG exports to China rose by 60.49 per cent to $110.09 million in the first half of the FY14 from 68.60 million in the same period of the FY13.
Garments exports to India increased by 53.39 per cent to $52.85 million in the first half of the FY14 from $34.45 million in the same period of the FY13.
Bangladeshi RMG exporters have been enjoying the duty-free market access benefit in India given by the country since September 2011.
Among the 11 new destinations — Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey — only South Africa and Brazil registered negative growth in the first half of the FY14.
Mohammad Hatem, vice-president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, on Sunday told New Age that the buyers from the EU and the US were imposing new conditions on Bangladeshi exporters for their own interest as they knew that the export of Bangladesh was mainly focused centring the two regions.
‘We want to reduce the dependency on the EU and the US markets for our own safety and so the new markets can be very helpful for us to maintain the export growth,’ he said.
In 2007, RMG exporters of Bangladesh had started exploring the new markets and they have been working sincerely on this issue since 2010, Hatem said.
‘There might be a number of risk factors in the traditional markets and then new markets will act as protectors,’ Hatem said.
Anwar-Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, former president of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said in the face of various difficulties in the major export destinations, the non-traditional markets could be the safeguard for Bangladesh.
In the era of globalisation it is not justified to concentrate on only two export regions and so Bangladesh needs market diversification, he said.
‘The performance of new markets is encouraging for us and we want to expand our markets to remain the RMG export secured,’ Parvez said.
-With New Age input
