Apparel exports to Japan on track to pre-pandemic level

After Canada, another non-traditional market for Bangladesh, Japan is set to import apparels worth $1 billion probably at the end of May.

According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), garment exporters shipped apparels worth $939 million to Japan in 10 months, making a 17 percent growth during July-April period of the current fiscal year. However, Bangladesh’s overall exports attained 25.53 percent growth in the non-traditional markets, year on year.

In 2018-19, for the first time Japan had imported $1.09 billion worth of apparel products from Bangladesh.  But, in 2019-20 as global trade was disrupted due to strict lockdown imposed to tame Coronavirus, export to Japan fell to $961 million and further declined in 2020-21 to $945 million, EPB data shows.

The garment players said world trade is experiencing multiple adverse situations. Therefore, to keep the export on track, manufacturers had to concentrate on the locations based on geographical proximity.

“Currently, our motto is to explore new markets. Japan is our nontraditional market and we are very keen to enhance our business with Japan. To our advantage, Japanese buyers are flexible about offering us the fair price,” Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told the Business Insider Bangladesh.

Another top leader of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), agreed.

“During the pandemic when the entire supply chain of the world was disrupted abruptly, we though that the closer destinations might be the safer for us to keep on trading,” said Muhammad Hatem, executive president of BKMEA.

Japan’s import of apparels aggregated $802.11 million during the same period of the last fiscal.

The garment traders believe as the export curve (supply from Bangladesh) being stretched outward consistently after the relaxation of lockdown, they might export well over one-billion-dollar worth of apparels to Japan this fiscal year.

It is highly likely that Bangladesh will reach the $1 billion export mark at the end of this month, after tallying monthly data, exporters said.

Japan imported $509.30 million worth of knit products and $429.88 million worth of woven products from Bangladesh during the July-April period.

Bangladesh fetched a total of $5.36 billion from the nontraditional markets in ten months of ‘22FY. Of this, about one billion dollars came from Japan.

Meanwhile, in the ten months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh fetched $35.36 billion by shipping trousers, denim, T-shirts, sweaters, blouses, underwear etc.