Value addition in the country’s readymade garment (RMG) sector reached a record 72.20% in the third quarter (January-March) of the current financial year 2023-24 compared with that of 71.06% in the same period of FY23.
This growth was primarily driven by increased shipments of knitwear products and other high value-added items, exporters said.
According to a Bangladesh Bank report “Quarterly Review on RMG: January-March FY24”, the import value of raw materials, including raw cotton, synthetic/viscose fiber, synthetic/mixed yarn, cotton yarn, and textile fabrics and accessories for garments, amounted to $3.84 billion in January-March of FY24, accounting for 27.80% of total RMG export.
As a result, the net exports from the RMG sector stood at $9.97 billion in the third quarter of FY24, 18.70% higher than the $8.40 billion in the preceding quarter and 14.49% higher than the $8.71 billion in the same quarter of FY23, the report said.
In the third quarter of FY24, export earnings from RMG stood at $13.81 billion, marking a 17.30% increase compared with that of $11.77 billion in the preceding quarter and a 12.69% increase compared with that of $12.25 billion in the corresponding quarter of FY23.
Earlier, the highest value addition in the readymade garment sector was recorded at 71.48% in the April-June quarter of FY23.
In the second quarter (October-December) of FY24, the value addition in the RMG sector was 71.35%.
Bangladesh Bank data showed that export earnings from the knitwear sector in the January-March quarter of FY24 reached $7.53 billion, marking a 16.26% increase compared with that of $6.47 billion in the same quarter of the previous financial year.
Additionally, knitwear exports exceeded its target by 1.69% for the third quarter of FY24.
Export earnings from woven garments in the third quarter of FY24 stood at $6.28 billion, marking an 8.69% increase compared with that of $5.78 billion in the same quarter of FY23.
The data showed that in January-March of FY24, RMG exports to Bangladesh’s nine main destinations — the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Belgium — totalled at $9.32 billion.
