The Financial Express, 29 July 2012
Woven garment once again emerged as the country’s biggest export-earning product, beating out knitwear items in the financial year just gone by.
The sub-sector of the US$ 19 billion clothing industry pulled in US$9.60 billion-or up by nearly 14 per cent a year ago, according to data by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
Knitwear has been the top export earning product since fiscal year 2008. The export growth of the product, however, was 0.05 per cent in the last fiscal.
In the FY 2010-11, the knitwear sub sector earned $ 9.48 billion while woven earning $ 8.43 billion.
Analysts said the country’s woven garment export surged in FY 2011-12 due mainly to the revised rules of origin (RoO) by the European Union since January 2011.
Dr Mustafizur Rahman, a trade economist, told the FE: “The export volume of the woven segment beat the knitwear as the revised RoO has been facilitating the woven garment exporters.”
Under the revised EU rules of origin, clothing exporters can enjoy duty-free access to the 27-nation European Union — the world’s largest apparel market — even if they source fabrics from other countries.
The previous RoO paved the way for the garment makers for buying bulk of their fabrics from Bangladeshi textile plants in order to enjoy zero-tariff benefit in the EU.
Mr Mustafiz, also executive director of the country’s oldest think-tank — Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) — said the demand for knit products has been squeezed both in Europe and the USA in recent years due to economic crises there.
Md Fazlul Hoque, a knitwear maker and former chief of BKMEA (Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association), said knit products failed to attract an increased number of buyers as its prices widely varied in the last year due to fluctuation in prices of its raw materials.
He said the demand for knitwear products in the new destinations is very high but the volume is too low to influence the overall export of the same.
Ashraf Hassan, managing director of leading knitwear producer — Grameen Knitwear — told the FE: “Our main destination is Europe. But debt crisis in many European nations resulted in poor orders.”
He said: “This is the worst period in the last ten years’ operation in the country.”
Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, chief of BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) said the volume of woven garment export was comparatively satisfactory in the wake of global crisis adding: “Single stage GSP (generalised system of preferences) is the main reason.”
Bangladesh fetched $ 19.10 billion from both woven and knitwear shipments in FY 2011-12.
Bangladesh Economy 
Leave a comment