Inter-apparel diversification through innovations suiting demand side and boosting productivity with up-skilled workforce are deemed among tasks of the time for Bangladesh's export industry to navigate emerging challenges.
A latest central-bank report on its findings also says exporting the readymade garments or RMG to newer markets is also crucial to sustaining and growing by facing the headwinds blowing from the fast-unfolding global trade milieus.
Emphasis should be given on skill development of the garment workers for facing potential challenges and harnessing available benefits of this sector, the Bangladesh Bank says in its latest quarterly report.
It notes that the apparel sector was "turning around fairly well" in the post Covid-19 period, though the Russian war in Ukraine late February of last year and its resultant impact of supply-chain disruptions, globally high inflation and tight monetary policy of the US Fed etc created some challenges in recent months.
"However, to face different corresponding challenges and to accelerate the export growth of RMG, we should focus on inter-apparel diversification, increase productivity, efficiency and product innovation," the BB report reads.
The quarterly report on RMG sector for the period of January to March of this year was published last month.
Industry-insiders also on different occasions stressed diversification of both the clothing items and markets as most of the total RMG-export earnings depend only on five items while major markets remain only the European Union, the United States of America and Canada.
They also have opined that the Bangladeshi-made RMG items are mostly based on cotton fabrics while man-made fibre (MMF)-based garment demand is high on the global market.
Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data analysis shows that though about 82 per cent or US$42.61 billion of the country's total export earnings worth US$ 52.08 billion come from RMG, most of the sector's earnings, however, depend only on five items in a sign of stagnation.
Bangladesh received US$35.11 billion from export of trousers, t-shirts and knit shirts, sweaters, shirts and blouses and underwear, according to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) data.
Talking to the FE, BGMEA president Faruque Hassan recently said many entrepreneurs were already producing mid-and high value-added wears while they adopted requisite latest technologies in the cusp of change.
Bangladesh is now producing value-added denim, suits, sportswear and some other outwear items, he said.
"Also, many of us have our own research teams for innovation and developing designs," he said, adding that they recently trained some 160 participants to produce high value-added apparel from local heritage materials, including Jamdani, Khadi and Muslin.
"After achieving the milestone of 45-billion-dollar RMG export in 2022, we've taken a strategic vision to achieve 100-billion-dollar apparel export by 2030," he said.
"To pursue this vision and increase our global market share, we're working to make ourselves more advanced in terms of product and fabrics diversification, product sophistication, new design development, value addition and technological upgradation."
Md Shahidullah Azim, managing director of Classic Fashion Concept Limited, also puts focus on MMF items as the global demand for such garment items is "very high".
"So, Bangladesh needs to develop its MMF backward-linkage capacity, and more investment in the domestic MMF sector is needed," he says, reiterating their demand for cash incentives on MMF-based garment manufacturing.
Regarding markets, Mr Azim, also a vice president of BGMEA, says exports to non-traditional markets are gradually increasing and cash incentives played a major role in this regard.
India, Japan, Korea and Australia now turned potential ones, he noted.
The MMF items' demand is rising globally due to uncertainty in cotton production and supply, price comparability, environmental concerns, and use of pesticides and huge quantity of water, the industry-insiders said.
Global consumption of fibre is heavily tilted towards MMF, and moving towards MMF can lead to improved product prices, they added.
Bangladesh could earn US$95 billion by 2030 from RMG export if the country can raise its manmade fibre or MMF-based garment shipment alongside the existing cotton-made items, according to a Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) study.
Bangladesh would need to achieve 12 per cent and 20 per cent of the global MMF-and cotton-based items' market share respectively for the said amount of export, it showed.
According to the study, conducted last year, Bangladesh captures less than 5.0-percent and 16-percent market shares of the global MMF-based and cotton-based apparel goods respectively.
Almost half the total global apparel exports constitute MMF products, while 42-percent are cotton-based. In contrast, 72 per cent of Bangladesh's garment exports are cotton-based, while only 24 per cent are MMF.
In 2021, the global apparel-market size was $440 billion, and MMF-based apparel grabbed $222-billion swathe or 51 per cent, and cotton-based $190 billion or 42 per cent, it showed.
Munni_fe@yahoo.com
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