Bangladesh has surpassed China, Vietnam and Indonesia in growth rate of readymade garment exports to the United States in the first 10 months of 2021.
According to US Department of Commerce, Bangladesh’s export earnings from the US increased by 27 percent during Jan-Oct period compared to last year’s corresponding period while the China’s export growth was 25 percent, Vietnam’s 14 percent and Indonesia’s 10 percent.
Data available with the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) of the Department of Commerce show Bangladesh, the third largest exporter of garments to the United States, earned 5.7 billion dollars from apparel export to the US market in the Jan-Oct period.
According to textile industry insiders, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a sharp decline in China's production of readymade garments. Besides, the production has also been disrupted in Vietnam and Indonesia. As a result, garment manufacturers in Bangladesh have received additional work orders.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, BGMEA First Vice-President Syed Nazrul Islam said, “After struggling for a long time since the pandemic began, the readymade garment sector started to recover. We were getting good response from buyers. However, Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19, has posed a new threat to the sector.”
He said the biggest market of Bangladesh’s apparel is Europe and America.
“Lockdown has been imposed in many countries of Europe. As a result, outlets are now almost closed. Although we haven’t observed any effect of the new variant in export yet, we fear that a large number of orders might get cancelled if the situation gets worse.” he added.