Bangladesh has been able to glean an astonishing amount of growth from its two most dominant industries: Readymade garments and manpower.
RMG in particular has long been considered the primary engine of our economy for nearly as long as we have been a sovereign entity. While the administration’s focus on such established sectors is an important component of ensuring our economy stays afloat, even more important is to spot potential new areas of export that it should be propping up.
To that end, an unexpected sector seems to be making waves recently in the form of our furniture industry. According to Bangladeshi furniture manufacturers, furniture worth $190.36 million was exported in the last fiscal year (2021-2022) recording a growth of 38.87% over the prior fiscal year.
If these growth figures are anything to go by, our furniture industry could be the next big thing.
As it stands, Bangladesh exports furniture to India, Nepal, the US, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Europe. With such a fairly large base of export destinations for the industry, the opportunity is ripe for the administration to prop up the industry with the funding and infrastructural support required to not only solidify existing destinations but find newer ones as well.
Of course, giving our furniture industry adequate support would ensure a healthy local market as well, one that would be far less reliant on costly exports, especially when it comes to large sectors such as the office furniture market.
At the end of the day, the message is still the same: Bangladesh will need to diversify its export basket as it continues on its growth trajectory. There are many promising new industries on the horizon which simply need legs to stand on.
