For the first time in ‘knitwear’ subcategory, EU’s import from Bangladesh has exceeded the share of any other country during January-September of 2023, both in dollar value and in weight (kilogram).
In 2022, EU’s clothing import from Bangladesh reached 1.33 billion KG, whereas import from China was 1.31 billion KG. Though in terms of value, EU’s clothing import from Bangladesh was US$ 7.3 billion less than the import from China.
During the mentioned nine-months, EU’s knitwear import from Bangladesh was US$ 9 billion (which was US$ 8.96 billion from China), and in terms of weight EU’s import from Bangladesh was 571 million KGs (which was 442 million from China).
As Bangladesh’s position in EU markets continues to be stronger over the years, 2023 sets a significant landmark for the knitwear sector in the EU market. Such a performance reveals our competitive capability over others. Thanks to the EU’s EBA scheme which has been one of the key success factors behind the growth and investment in this sector.
As far as clothing trade is concerned, Bangladesh also tops in EU and USA in few other criteria. We are the global leader in EU for Denim sourcing since 2014 followed by Turkey as the second and Pakistan as the third.
We have also topped the sourcing country list of USA for Denim in 2020 exceeding Mexico. Pakistan remains as the third largest sourcing of Denim for USA.
In 2022, the gap in Denim sourcing from Bangladesh and Mexico widened further (USA sourced US$ 944 million worth of Denim from Bangladesh, which was US$ 750 from Mexico).
Bangladesh became as the top sourcing destination for the USA for ‘cotton apparel’ during January-June 2023, however as Vietnam’s export to USA rebounded since July, we fell behind Vietnam marginally in this category during January-October 2023.
The cotton apparel market of USA worth US$ 47.50 billion in 2022, meaning we have secure 14.55% share of it.
BGMEA President Faruque Hasan said “while we are promoting non-cotton apparel these days, the importance of retaining and enhancing our share in cotton apparel cannot be overstated, especially in selected cotton categories like Denim and ladies’ dresses”. He believes by the end of next year, Bangladesh would be able to top the list for cotton apparel category in the US market.
One of the reasons, why Bangladesh is doing exceedingly well in EU for knitwear is the recent investments in higher value-added items, especially active-wear.
Faruque believes that the industry will be able to make a significant shift in this area of non-cotton-based athleisure items.
