The country's overall export experienced a negative year on year (YoY) growth in November by 6.05% to $4.78 billion, which was $5.09 in November of 2022, according to data published by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
November's export was also 8.94% lower than the target set at $5.25 billion.
The slowdown may particularly be caused by the disruption in production during labour unrest as several big players in export were bound to shut their factory units during the unrest to avoid vandalism, which impacted the overall export earnings, said the exporters.
They also said that the global economic turmoil and continuous slowdown in purchase orders due to lowering global retail sales and demand also impacted the export scenario.
The apparel sector, the highest earner among export receipts, witnessed a fall by 7.45% to $4.05 billion, which was $4.37 billion during November of last financial year, EPB data stated.
The target was initially set at $4.42, meaning export achievement for RMG was 8.51% lower than the target for November.
However, during the first five months of FY24 (July-November of FY24), overall exports registered an extremely narrow growth of 1.3% to $22.23 billion from $21.95 billion during the mentioned period of the last fiscal.
The overall export target was set at $24.49 billion, 9.23% higher than the achieved export earnings.
During the mentioned period, apparel exports reached $18.83 billion, fetching a very thin YoY growth of 2.75%, from $18.33 billion in the same period of FY23.
Export breakdown
Among apparel products, knitwear export reached $10.11 billion, while export from woven items was $8.12 billion with 8.66.% positive growth and 4.52% negative growth respectively, compared to FY23.
However, except a thin positive growth of the RMG sector, the export earnings from all the major sectors witnessed negative growth in the July-November period of FY24.
Among other notable sectors, home textile marked a negative growth of 42.27% to $299.42 million, down from $412.78 million in the mentioned period of last fiscal.
Leather and leather goods also experienced a negative growth of 20.55% to $427.02 million, which was $537.5 million in the mentioned period of FY24.
In the July-November period of FY24, the export earnings from agricultural products stood at $402.59 million, fetching a negative growth of 0.86% from $424.22 million in the same period of last fiscal.
Export receipts from jute and jute goods also experienced negative growth of 10.99% to $361.91 million, down from $406.6 million in July-November of FY24, EPB data stated.
Another potential export sector, engineering products, again fetched a negative growth of 8.02% to $200.82 million, down from $218.32 million in the same period of last FY.
Industry insiders also said that they have been facing a severe order shortage crisis for a long time due to the ongoing global economic slowdown. Amid this situation, the apparel sector recently faced massive worker unrest, which turned violent and left at least four killed and hundreds injured.
To tackle the situation, over a hundred factories postponed production for at least two weeks in the Gazipur and Ashulia areas including some big volume exporters.
Moreover, buyers are also placing slow orders due to the ongoing political instability in Bangladesh.
Insiders hopeful of a rebound
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President Faruque Hassan said that they are facing a global and domestic crisis at a time, which is reflected in the export earnings.
“We are running factories with less order and with unit prices down, the country is facing political instability and many are commenting that the US will impose sanctions against individual exporters as well as the country’s trade. Both have created pressure on the apparel sector,” he added.
He is optimistic that the earnings in December are likely to turn around if the political situation doesn't turn worse.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Mohiuddin Rubel, director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), said that there has been a negative trend in exports in the last few months.
He said: “Political issues and worker unrest have interrupted our production process. However, the amount of income is still not so bad as we earned more than four billion.”
The economic turmoil remains in the world and brands have overstocks, though there was a possibility to increase the purchase orders, but finally didn’t.
“Woven items continued the negative trend though a positive trend exists in Knitwear. Since Covid-19 there is a different trend in clothing choices and we need to notice these changes carefully.”
In terms of infrastructure, building safety and labour situation, Bangladesh is ahead everywhere. If the economic situation of the world is normal, they will be ahead of everyone, he added.
Bangladesh earned $55.56 billion in export earnings in FY23, posting a narrow 6.67% year-on-year growth.