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From July to September of 2023, Bangladesh exported more knitwear products to the European Union (EU) than China did, bringing in $8.31 billion.
Based on data from Eurostat, the European Union, the group of 27 nations imported $31.94 billion worth of knitwear during the first nine months of the previous year. Bangladesh contributed $8.31 billion worth of knit goods to the overall imports, while China—the biggest exporter of apparel—sent out $8.27 billion worth of goods.
Turkey comes in third place with $4.28 billion in export revenue, followed by India with $1.58 billion.
Bangladesh's overall clothing exports to the EU fell by 17.66 percent to $13.70 billion between January and September of this year, compared to $16.62 billion during the same time previous year.
China's GDP decreased by 20.17 percent to $17.12 billion from $21.45 billion during the same time in 2022. Turkey's overall garment exports to the EU fell to $7.57 billion, a 12.67 percent decline.
The overall amount of clothing imports into the EU from outside markets decreased by 14.10 percent to $63.51 billion from $73.94 billion in the previous year.
Exporters and trade analysts attributed the success to the robust backward linkage industry. Since the EU accounted for almost 60% of global earnings, they also voiced concern about the declining trend of export earnings from its member states.
According to Mohammad Hatem, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), "it is definitely good news when we are facing severe problems in every area such as new wage structure, global crisis, higher utility service costs, and political uncertainty."
Nonetheless, given that overall export earnings saw negative growth during the same period, this news is encouraging. The business leader stated that as the EU accounts for the majority of our earnings, we will be responsible for any consequences if the situation does not improve.
According to Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Senior Research Director at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), "a strong backward linkage industry has played an important role in surpassing China as Bangladeshi textile producers are capable of supplying about 80–90 per cent raw materials for the knitwear sector."
The Primary Textile Sector (PTS) comprises over 1780 mills with a combined investment of roughly $16 billion. Textiles and items related to textiles account for more than 84% of the export revenue.
At the moment, the Primary Textile Sector (PTS) meets around 85–90% of the yarn demand for knit RMG and 35–40% of the yarn demand for woven RMG.
Approximately 4.5 million people are employed in the forward and backward linking sectors; 60% of these workers are women, primarily from rural areas.
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