Amid the global crisis, the country’s garment exports to the United States have increased. During the first nine months (January- September) of this year, the country has exported USD 7.55 billion worth of ready-made garments which is about 51 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.
US official source said that the ‘Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA)’ released the latest RMG import statistics of USA for the period of January-September 2022.
During this period their apparel import from Bangladesh grew by 50.98 percent. In Jan-Sep, 2022 USA’s apparel import from the world increased by 34.61 percent. With 8.54 percent share, Bangladesh remains the third apparel import source for USA.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Director Mohiuddin Rubel told Bangladesh Post, “The increase in US exports is due to keeping factories open during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 to meet demand for ready-made garments.”
He said, “The garment factories of other countries were closed during the corona pandemic. At that time Bangladeshi garment factories were kept open. This is the benefit of Bangladesh to supply ready-made clothes during the pandemic. Besides, Bangladesh has done a lot of work in recent times to improve the working environment of the garment industries. It is also one of the main reasons for the increase in exports of US-made garments.”
Meanwhile, with 22.48 percent share, China is the largest supplier of apparel to the USA, followed by Vietnam with 18.51 percent. During the first ten months of 2022, USA’s imports from China grew by 28.94 percent and reached USD 17.72 billion. At the same time, imports from Vietnam stood at USD 14.59 billion with 34.69 percent year-on-year growth.
Other top apparel suppliers of RMG to USA having significant growths are Indonesia 54.66 percent, India 53.39 percent, Cambodia 46.58 percent, Pakistan 40.11 percent and South Korea 39.61 percent year-on-year respectively.
