Faruque Hassan, President, BGMEA
Last week I sent you the overall RMG export data and a few analyses. We have now prepared a country-wise detailed export data based on the calendar year 2023. Today, I am writing to update you on the country-wise performance of our RMG export for January-April of 2023 with a brief analysis. Please find the statistics in the attachment for your kind information.
During January to April of 2023, our RMG export to world reached US$ 15.58 billion, of which export to our major market, i.e. European Union (EU 27) was US$ 7.70 billion; declined by 1.55% compare to the same period of 2022. Out of 27 member states of the EU, countries posted negative year-on-year growth are Germany, Denmark, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Particularly, our export to Germany declined by 21.08% during this time. On the other hand, export to France and Spain increased by 9.45% and 15.45% respectively.
In the mentioned months, export to U.S.A. declined significantly, which is by -17.86% to US$ 2.67 billion from US$ 3.25 billion in Jan-Apr 2022. Export to Canada also dropped by a meager 0.21% and reached US$ 455.48 million. On the other hand, export to UK has shown 9.56% year-on-year growth fetching US$1.79 billion during the first four months of 2023.
However, RMG export to non-traditional markets is showing encouraging and steady growth during January to April of 2023. During this period, our export to the non-traditional markets increased by 28.95%, and the amount stood at US$ 2.96 billion. With this total, our clothing export share in the non-traditional markets reached 19.01%. Among the major non-traditional markets, Japan is our top destination which fetched US$ 566.99 million during the mentioned period. Export to other non-traditional markets such as Australia, India, South Korea and Turkey are also on the rise. However, exports to Russia, UAE, and Chile have declined in contrast. As Asia turns out to be an increasingly promising market for us, we see an upward trend of export to emerging markets like Japan, India, and South Korea. In the past, BGMEA has taken several initiatives to explore non-traditional markets, we are still continuing this effort.
