The United States remained the top destination for Bangladesh’s apparel exports for the first three months of fiscal 2018-19, followed by Germany and UK.
Desk Report According to the latest data of Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, apparel exports to the US during July-Sep 2018 amounted to over USD 1.5 billion, a 3 percent growth from the USD 1.45 billion worth of shipment during the first three months of fiscal 2017-2018. Figure: Chattogram port – the principal port of Bangladesh that handles over 80 percent of the country’s total export-import activities. Courtesy: www.cpa.gov.bd During the first three months of fiscal, Bangladesh exported to US USD 886 million worth of knitwear items and USD 616 million worth of woven items. For September alone, the export figure stood at USD 452 million. It has been observed that exports to the US remained cherry despite the ongoing tariff war with China, with several media reports claiming that it is because of China plus sourcing strategy. In fact, with the prevailing trade war, buyers in the US are considering to increase sourcing from Bangladesh. Figure: Showing the shipments during the first three months of fiscal 2017 and 2018, (US $ billion). For Germany, the biggest importer of Bangladesh’s apparel during 2017-18, the total amount of apparel exports amounted to over USD 1.48 billion – a 6.7 percent growth from the USD 1.38 billion last year. Bangladesh exported to Germany USD 387 million worth of knitwear items and USD 1.1 billion worth of woven items. For September alone, the figure stood at USD 444 million. For the UK, however, fell by nearly 7 percent. During the first three months, exports amounted to USD 0.936 billion, down from what was USD 1.03 billion compared to last year. July-September 2018 saw over USD 535 million worth of knit items export and over USD 401 million woven exports to the United Kingdom.