Export earnings crossed the $8.27 billion mark in the July-November period, registering nearly 36 percent growth over the same period a year earlier, according to the latest Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
Exports of the country’s main foreign-exchange earner, knitwear, grew nearly 37 percent, to $3.53 billion, while woven exports grew nearly 36 percent, to $2.88 billion, from a year ago.
The exports of vessels grew by whopping 731 percent, to $6.98 million, during the period compared with the same period a last year.
In November alone, exports grew nearly 30 percent, to $1.55 billion, compared with the same month a year earlier, the data said.
Salim Osman, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said apparel exports increased mainly because of the shift of international buyers to Bangladesh from China, the world’s largest apparel supplier.
“China is losing its competitiveness for higher costs of production,” Osman said. “We will grow more when the doors in some new destinations, like South Africa, will widen further.”
Osman said recent demand for jeans and denim products and for T-shirts has soared because China is losing market to Bangladesh.
Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez, former president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said value of apparel exports is also increasing due to the per unit higher prices of raw materials.
Echoing Osman, the former chief of BGMEA also said China is losing business to Bangladesh due to its higher costs of production and shortages of workers in the garment factories.
“Such higher growth will continue for a long time,” he said. “We have to increase our both capacity and efficiency for sustainability of the export.
“We have a bright future. We need to address infrastructure and energy problems as soon as possible, and increase the efficiency of ports.”
