Import of apparel raw materials rises 76% in eight months

Import of apparel accessories and articles has increased by 76 percent, year on year, in the eight months of the current fiscal year due to torrential international work orders pouring into the country.

According to the Bangladesh Bank data, during July-February ’22 FY, the import of garment articles and accessories aggregated $14.82 billion. Of these, accessories import was worth $6.68 billion, yarn $3.35 billion, raw cotton $2.89 billion, staple fibre $1 billion and dyeing materials $690 million, respectively.

Industry insiders said excessive work orders have increased in the country after being diverted from China and Vietnam. China is in political turmoil with the USA and Vietnam is still suffering from the Covid-19 shake. Therefore, the import of apparel backward linkage products has been increased to materialise the huge out-bound consignment.

“There is a political turmoil going on between the large countries. The USA has cut sourcing products from China and as a result, a good number of work orders are being diverted to Bangladesh from China. Currently, Bangladesh is on top of the sourcing list of the buyers,” Zainul Abedin, Proprietor of AAA TRIMS World told Business Insider Bangladesh.

He said, “In her 40 year of journey, Bangladesh has appeared as an economy with strong infrastructure, especially for manufacturing ready-made garments. Bangladesh can continue production possibly in an adverse situation which has made the importing partners dependent on the country’s apparel producers. This is why Bangladesh is bucketing a whole lot of orders and importing a great deal of apparel articles.”

Experts who were wary of the Covid-19 pandemic feel happy.

“This is a very good sign that the economy of the country is emerging after a deadly pandemic. An increase in goods import indicates that the employment opportunities are growing in the country, paving the way for concurring investments, as well,” Dr Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh told Business Insider Bangladesh.

He said: “The pandemic had started to affect investment and businesses since the last quarter of FY 2020 when many struggled hard to continue production and dropped their planned expansion. Currently, a good number of companies are expanding which will make a good growth.”

Bangladesh Bank data shows, at the same time of last year the import was recorded at $8.40 billion. Of these, accessories import was worth $4 billion, yarn $1.33 billion, raw cotton $1.79 billion, staple fibre $646 million and dyeing materials $532 million, respectively.

According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country fetched a record $ 31.42 billion in merchandise revenue during July-March of the current fiscal year.

Bangladesh primarily exports trousers, shirts, skirts, blouses, underwear and sweaters to the world markets.