Country’s export earnings from Japan dropped by 4.36 per cent to $230.72 million in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared with that of $241.26 million in the same period of the financial year 2013-14 due to negative growth in footwear and readymade garment export.
Exporters said that the negative growth to the Japan market was the impact of the political turmoil and industrial accidents that took place in last year.
They also said that some buyers shifted their business to Vietnam and India during the instability in Bangladesh.
Experts, however, said that the export earnings from Japan witnessed negative growth in the July-September period of FY 2014-15 due to a devaluation of the currency of Japan against US dollar.
This is the first time in the last five years that the export earnings from Japan registered a negative growth, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data available on its web site.
The export earnings from Japan witnessed a continuous positive growth in FY14, FY13, FY12, FY11 and FY10 and the earnings were at $862.07 million, $750.26 million, $600.52 million, $434.12 million and $330.55 million respectively.
The RMG (knitwear and woven) export to Japan fell by 0.44 per cent to $159.57 million in the July-September period in the FY 2014-15 compared with that of $160.28 million in the same period of the FY 2013-14.
The export earnings from the woven garments fetched $86.01 million with a 4.79-per cent negative growth while the earnings from knitwear fetched $73.57 million with a 5.17-per cent positive growth.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age that this was the impact of the industrial incidents as well as the political turmoil that took place in the country last year.
‘Some buyers have been observing the improvements of compliance issue in the readymade garment sector and we hope that they will come back within January-February next year and we will be able to rebound in the Japan market,’ he said.
The footwear export in July-September period in the current financial year to the Japan market registered a 24.27-per cent negative growth to $27.29 million against $36.04 million in the same period of the financial year 2013-14, the EPB data showed.
The export earnings from leather and leather products to Japan stood at $10.07 million in the first quarter of the FY 2014-15 against $10.09 million in the same period of the financial year 2013-14.
Nazmul Hassan Sohail, former vice-president of Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association of Bangladesh, said that this was the impact of the political turmoil in last year.
‘During the turmoil our competitive countries Vietnam and India gained their capacity and grabbed many orders from Japan,’ he said.
The restoration of the market share would depend on political stability, security and protection of buyers and efficient traffic management as good number of buyers shifted their order to Vietnam and India due to lack of confidence, Nazmul said.
Khondoker Golam Moazzem, additional research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, however, said that import getting costlier for Japan as the currency of the country was devaluated by 5 per cent against US dollar in last three months.
Not only from Bangladesh, but the global import in Japan registered a negative growth due to the currency devaluation, he said.
Moazzem said that recently Japan had increased consumption tax which impacted on the people’s purchasing capacity.
‘Not supply side but the issues of the demand side are the main concerns for the slow growth in the Japan market,’ he said.
-With New Age input
