Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh has been doing well in exporting readymade garments to the United States for over a year now and the country’s market share – in terms of volume and quantity- has increased in this big market.
The market share of Bangladesh stood at 8.76 per cent at the end of the year. But, it has increased by 9.15 per cent in the first 3 months of the current calendar year.
The Bangladeshi garments worth $2.46 billion were exported to the US market in the first three months (January-March) period, which is 62.23 per cent higher than the corresponding period of the last year.
According to latest data of the OTEXA, an affiliate of the US Department of Commerce, different brands and retailers of US import apparel items worth $24.31 billion in the first quarter, which is 39.71 per cent higher than the previous year.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh fetched $7.14 billion from RMG exports to the US in 2021, keeping the market as its single-largest destination without any duty preference.
The RMG exports also surpassed those of the pre-pandemic level in 2019, when Bangladesh earned $5.92 billion.
Industry insiders said a high demand for the Bangladeshi RMG products, especially knit ones, since beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, significant rise in prices of raw materials, and buyers’ confidence in the local industry’s resilience and compliance have helped the exports grow – both in terms of volume and value.
Gradual economic recovery, aided by the Covid-19 vaccination coverage, and shifting orders from China due to the trade war between the US and China have also contributed to the double-digit growth, they added.
After the collapse of Rana Plaza, there was a question about the working environment of the garment factories in Bangladesh and the export to the market decreased significantly.
Then the entrepreneurs carried out extensive reforms to improve the working environment of the factory. As a result, Bangladesh’s garment exports gradually began to turn around.
China has always been the largest exporter of garments to the US market and the entrepreneurs of the country export worth $ 5.32 billion in the first three months of this year, which is 44 per cent higher than the previous year.
Currently, the Chinese market share is 24 per cent, which was 33 per cent in 2018.
Vietnam is the second largest exporter of readymade garments in the US after China. In the first three months of this year, the country exported worth $4.45 billion of garments, which is 29.86 percent higher than the same period of last year. Their market share is 17.39 per cent.
India and Indonesia are the fourth and fifth largest garment exporters in the US market respectively. India exports worth $ 1.5 billion of garments. The country’s export growth is 53 percent. And Indonesia exports garments worth $1.46 billion, which is 62.31 per cent higher than the same period of last year.
