Value addition in the country鈥檚 readymade garment sector reached a record high of 72.20 per cent in the third quarter (January-March) of the current financial year 2023-24 compared with that of 71.06 per cent in the same period of FY23.
This growth was primarily driven by increased shipments of knitwear products and other high value-added items, exporters said.
According to a Bangladesh Bank report titled 鈥楺uarterly Review on RMG: January-March FY24鈥�, the import value of raw materials, including raw cotton, synthetic/viscose fiber, synthetic/mixed yarn, cotton yarn, and textile fabrics and accessories for garments, amounted to $3.84 billion in January-March of FY24, accounting for 27.80 per cent of total RMG export.
As a result, the net exports from the RMG sector stood at $9.97 billion in the third quarter of FY24, which is 18.70 per cent higher than the $8.40 billion in the preceding quarter and 14.49 per cent higher than the $8.71 billion in the same quarter of FY23, the report said.
In the third quarter of FY24, export earnings from RMG stood at $13.81 billion, marking a 17.30-per cent increase compared with that of $11.77 billion in the preceding quarter and a 12.69-per cent increase compared with that of $12.25 billion in the corresponding quarter of FY23.
Earlier, the highest value addition in the readymade garment sector was recorded at 71.48 per cent in the April-June quarter of FY23.
In the second quarter (October-December) of FY24, the value addition in the RMG sector was 71.35 per cent.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association executive president Mohammad Hatem on Tuesday told 抖阴精品 that the local value addition in the knitwear products topped 85 per cent and the overall value addition in the sector increased to 72.20 per cent due to increased shipments of knitwear.
He said that that the export of knitwear began to increase after the initial shock of Covid pandemic, and recently the ratio of knitwear to woven garment shipments had stood at 55:45.
At the same time, the shipment of some of high value-added woven products increased, Hatem said.
According to the business leader, the local value addition in the woven garments is 45-55 per cent.
The BB data showed that export earnings from the knitwear sector in January-March quarter of FY24 reached $7.53 billion, marking a 16.26-per cent increase compared with that of $6.47 billion in the same quarter of the previous financial year.
Additionally, knitwear exports exceeded its target by 1.69 per cent for the third quarter of FY24.
Export earnings from woven garments in the third quarter of FY24 stood at $6.28 billion, marking an 8.69-per cent increase compared with that of $5.78 billion in the same quarter of FY23.
The data showed that in January-March of FY24, RMG exports to Bangladesh鈥檚 nine main destinations 鈥� the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Belgium 鈥� totalled at $9.32 billion.
