Reopened factories help exports rise to $3.1bn in April

Bangladesh's export earnings climbed up to $3,134.38 million in April, 502.75% higher than the same month last year. 

Export came down to only $520.01 million in April 2020 – the lowest in the history of Bangladesh – due to the general holiday and the closure of factories in Bangladesh amid Covid-19 outbreak.

Export earnings rose last month, thanks to the shipments of garment products. Besides, jute and jute goods, agricultural products, leather and leather goods, engineering goods, frozen and live fish and the pharmaceutical sector also experienced a good growth on the tenth month of the current fiscal year.

In April 2019, Bangladesh's export worth was $3.06 billion. Compared to that, export has increased by 1.72% in April this year. However, the export earnings still remain 6.44% away from the monthly strategic target of $3.35 billion for April 2020-21.

The overall export growth was 8.74% to $32.07 billion in ten months (July 2020-April 2021) of this fiscal year compared to year-on-year data, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). 

In April 2021, the apparel sector took home $2,517 million, while it was only $375 million in April last year.

Apparel export rose by 6.24% to $26 billion in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.

Knitwear products registered 15.34% growth to $13.99 billion, while woven garment export fell 2.71% to $12 billion, compared to the same period in FY20.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan said, "It is not a normal growth, but the bouncing back of apparel export has just begun."

"We hope the export of apparels will boost by September this year, and it fully depends on the reopening of European markets, as many EU countries still remain under lockdown," he added.

The BGMEA president also mentioned that the apparel export to the US was performing well, while the country's overall apparel import came down compared to last year.   

Globally, apparel consumption has declined by more than 10% over the last year due to the drastic fall in income during the Covid-19 pandemic, he added.

As a result apparel prices also significantly declined although the cost of production has increased owing to the high prices of raw materials and freight charges, said the BGMEA president.

In some cases, apparel makers are continuing production even at lower production cost with the hope that the business will bounce back in the coming days, said Faruque Hassan.