Bangladesh’s earnings from the merchandise exports witnessed a positive growth of 20.65% year-over-year (YoY) to $4.13 billion in October in the ongoing FY25, which was $3.42 billion in the same period of last fiscal year.
In October, the readymade garment (RMG) sector, the highest export earner of the country, bagged $3.3 billion, fetching a positive growth of 22.80% YoY against 2023, which was $2.68 billion last year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
The state agency provided this data, reflecting real-time shipment updates as per Asycuda World from the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
According to EPB data, Bangladeshi exporters shipped goods worth $15.78 billion, which was $14.24 billion in the first four months of FY24. This was YoY growth of 10.80%, in July-October period of FY25.
In the July-October period, the RMG sector earned $12.81 billion from its global destinations, which was 11.38% higher than $11.50 billion of the mentioned period of FY24, stated the EPB data.
In this period, knitwear earned $7.20 billion, 12.08% higher from $6.43 billion, and woven earned $5.6 billion, 10.48% higher from $5.07 billion from July-October of FY24.
In the same period, home textiles witnessed a narrow negative growth of 0.41% to $251.65 million, down from $254.94 million in the mentioned period of the last fiscal.
In the first four months of FY25, export earnings from agricultural products increased by 6.48% to $385.48 million, up from $362.36 million in the same period last fiscal year.
Export receipts from jute and jute goods experienced negative growth of 13.70% to $264.81 million, down from $306.86 million in July-October of FY24, EPB data stated.
Leather and leather goods experienced positive growth of 9.82% to $372.24 million, up from $338.94 million in the first four months of FY24.
Another potential export sector, engineering products, fetched a positive growth of 3.14% to $163.03 million, down from $158.06 million in last FY.
Higher export, higher confidence
Regarding the export earnings, Abdullah Hil Rakib, managing director of Team Group, said that the export growth indicates an increase in orders for Bangladesh.
He also said that all six of his manufacturing units are currently operating at full capacity with orders and are booked until January of next year - a time when there is typically a capacity gap.
Rakib, also a former BGMEA senior vice-president, said that two main factors were responsible for this order growth: first, the economies of major export destinations are recovering, which is driving up sales; and second, some orders that previously moved to other countries due to worker unrest in Ashulia may be returning now that the situation has stabilized.
Tanvir Ahmed, managing director of Envoy Textiles, said that the textile mill operated at 92% capacity in the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
For November, they have orders at full capacity to produce 4.5 million yards of denim fabric.
“We have good orders for next month as well; as of today, it looks like December will run very close to 100% capacity,” he said, adding that strong projections from their major buyers for January onward should allow Envoy Textiles to operate at full capacity.
Tanvir added that most buyers are increasing their orders, signaling that Envoy Textiles is on track to perform well this year.
Exporters also said that the export suffered in the last few months due to political instability over the ousted government. Moreover, the ongoing wars in various parts of the globe have also affected consumers.
They also said that local political stability was also necessary to increase exports.
In July, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) published data showing that actual shipments for the July-April period of the 2023-24 fiscal year were nearly $14 billion lower than the export figures initially reported by the EPB.
The discrepancy between export figures has persisted for at least 12 years, with the gap surpassing $12 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year.
According to the EPB, the revised export earnings in FY24 was $44.47 billion, which was $55.28 billion in mismatched data.
