Bangladesh's limited trade diplomacy, coupled with its slower shift towards value-added production, could allow Vietnam to surpass it in global rankings

Bangladesh has outperformed competitor countries to attain the highest year-on-year growth in apparel shipments to the US market in January, as American retailers and brands are placing large volumes of work orders here to capitalise on the favourable tariff regime.

International market prices declined mainly because of a fall in demand from end consumers suffering from high inflationary pressure due to the severe fallouts of Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war.

The highly impressive track record of Bangladesh’s export-oriented readymade garments (e-o RMG) sector is well-known and well-appreciated.

There could be a strong rebound in the inflow of work orders for garment items from international retailers and brands in the coming seasons as the global economy is slowly making improvements from sluggish trends while the country could witness stability, buyers said.

Exports growth shows the resilience of our businesses

Apart from garment items, some non-traditional products played a vital role in gaining export earnings for Bangladesh even amid the global economic slowdown in the previous fiscal year.

Apparel shipments to the European Union (EU) grew 41.76 per cent year-on-year to hit $19.40 billion in the January-October period of 2022, according to data from Eurostat, the statistics department of the EU.

International buyers are consistently paying lower than the global average price to apparel suppliers in Bangladesh but higher to some of the country’s competitors, according to the International Trade Centre (ITC).

Enhancing production capacity now, without any feasibility studies or without regard to what future headwind we may be facing, would be risky and reckless.

Garment manufacturers are confident about supplying garment products worth $8 billion a month to international buyers after Bangladesh consolidated its place in the global supply chain by remaining open for businesses even during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.