Dhaka, Bangladesh
As per the
Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA), affiliated with the US Department of
Commerce, Bangladesh’s apparel exports to the US sustained a negative growth of
over 8% YoY. It fetched $1.53 billion in January-March 2021, down from $1.67
billion in 2020. This was comparatively a much slower recovery than China and
Vietnam, which posted a positive growth of 12.69% and 1.40% respectively.
The OTEXA data
also showed that the total apparel import by the US declined by 2.46% YoY from
$17.84 billion in Q1 2020 to $17.41 billion in 2021. Readymade garment (RMG)
exporters agree to this data and attribute the poor performance to sluggish
demand in the US, higher Covid-19 infection rates and the change in sales
patterns.
An analysis by
Victoria Langro and Sheng Lu from the University of Delaware on COVID-19’s
impact on China, Vietnam and Bangladesh showed that China and Vietnam had the
advantage of product flexibility and agility with a wide variety, whereas
Bangladesh concentrated on basic fashion items only.
Faruque Hassan,
President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)
hopes that exports to the US will improve from October onwards.
The US apparel
import from India too fell by 14.43% to $976.54 million in Q1
2021.
Source: The Financial Express
Image Source: Pixabay
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