Desk Report: 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. Bangladesh’s single-month apparel export earnings from the United States (US) topped the $1 billion for the first time in March.
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.
Apparel Exporters said the US had been shifting its sourcing from China gradually and Bangladesh is getting the benefit. At the same time, the unit prices of products increased on the global market due to the price hike of raw materials.
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.
