Export performance of Bangladesh
The export performance of a country influence its Economic growth, employment and the
balance of payments situation. Competition among exporters is very high and there are several
factors that influence the export performance of a country like infrastructure, transportation,
communication, regional, political integration etc. Every country continuously modifying its
export baskets and destinations due to rising competition in the global market. To protect from
this unwanted competition, each country tries to diversify product and explore new market to
hold a strong position.
Bangladesh is a developing country has consistent economic growth for the last 10 years. Its
export income significantly increased over period of time. There are several items in the export
basket of Bangladesh which include traditional and nontraditional items like readymade
garments, leather and leather goods, Agricultural products, frozen goods, tea etc. Among all of
these items, some are newly emerged and showing potential as a major contributor in the world
market. Bangladesh is the top garment exporter in the world has a relative advantage in the
production apparel items. Jute and leather goods occupied second and third position respectively
in terms of export earnings.
These table shows the 5 major export sectors contains their overall performance for past 1.5
years which is 2020-22 and shows how their economic performance change during these period-
Items Export Propose Export Export % change % change
for d export performanc performanc of export of export
2020-21 target of e for July- e for July- performanc performanc
July- may may e over e July-may
may 2021-22 2020-21 export 2021-22
2021-22 target over
July-may
2020-21
RMG 31456.7 35144.00 38521.16 28561.85 19.61 34.87
3
Leather & 941.67 1031.00 1115.78 846.08 18.08 31.85
leather
goods
Jute & jute 1161.48 1420.00 1055.05 1089.81 -18.91 -3.19
products
Agricultur 1028.14 1109.20 1100.89 905.99 8.31 21.51
al Product
Frozen 477.37 508.00 491.62 430.88 5.61 14.1
items
Export earnings increased slightly by 5.81 percent to USD 36668.17 million in FY22 from USD
34655.9 million in FY2020-2021. Readymade Garments (RMG products) continued to occupy a
lion share (above four fifths) of the total export.
Composition of Exports
Ready Made Garments (RMG): Woven and knitwear products, which fetch about 83.49
percent of total export earnings, registered an increase in receipts from USD 31456.73 million in
FY 2020-21to USD 38521.61million in FY 2021-22. Woven and Knitwear products showed a
higher growth of 7.2 and 10.4 percent respectively in FY22 compared to FY21.
Leather: During FY 22 export earnings from leather and leather products increased
significantly to USD 941.9 million in FY22 from USD 1115.78 million in FY 21.
Frozen food: Earnings from frozen foods comprises mainly of shrimps, increase during FY 22.
Receipt from export of shrimp and fish increased by 14.1 percent to USD 491.62 million in
FY22 from USD 477.67 million in FY 21.
Agricultural product : During FY 22 export earnings increased drastically (21.51 percent)
compared to the previous fiscal year’s growth.
Jute goods (excluding carpets): Export earnings from jute goods decreased by 3.19 percent to
USD 1055.05 million in FY22 against USD 1161.48 million in FY21.
Raw jute: Raw jute valued at USD 155.7 million was exported in FY 22, against USD 167.8
million in FY 21
Export performance due to covid 19
Bangladesh has earned more than $38.75 billion from exports with a 15.1 percent growth in
2020-21 fiscal year during the coronavirus pandemic. Although the country missed the target by
5.5 percent, the growth has ignited hopes among the exporters with the factories open amid a
nationwide lockdown to curb a surge in deadly infections. After the pandemic hit exports in a
locked down world in the second half of 2019-20, the entire FY21 went through the pandemic
crisis, with much of it in efforts to recover from the effects of the outbreak.
Historically, Bangladesh has been heavily dependent on a narrow range of products for most of
its export earnings. In the early 1980s, jute and jute goods accounted for around 70 per cent of its
total merchandise exports. With the gradual transformation of the economy into labor-intensive
manufacturing from an agrarian base, the share of RMG products in total export started rising in
the mid-1980s. RMG products have constituted more than four-fifths of total export earnings
since 2015. In FY21, RMG constituted 81 per cent of the total export of Bangladesh of which 44
per cent of total export came from knitwear and 37 per cent came from woven garments.
Although Bangladesh's exports covered many other goods (total of 98 categories of products at
two-digit HS code), their share in total export earnings remained relatively small. The third-
largest export item was jute and jute goods (3.0 per cent) followed by home textiles (2.9 per
cent), agricultural products (2.7 per cent), and leather and leather product (2.4 per cent). An
extraordinarily large share of RMG in total export has made Bangladesh's export basket highly
concentrated compared to that of other developing and low-income countries, implying a lack of
comparative advantage in most of its products. According to the export concentration index data,
published in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s
Commodity Trade Statistics, the concentration ratio of Bangladesh's export was 0.40 in 2020,
which was more than double compared to 0.18 for LDCs and more than four times than
developing country average (0.09). The export concentration index shows to which degree
exports of a country are concentrated on a few products rather than being distributed in a more
homogeneous manner among several products. The export baskets of Bangladesh's peer
countries and main competitors in RMG export markets, such as India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Indonesia, were much less concentrated than in Bangladesh.
Although Bangladesh sells goods to nearly 200 countries, its exports are highly concentrated in a
few destinations. In FY21, around 70 per cent of the country's total export earnings came from
three markers, such as the European Union (EU), the United States (US), and the UK. Facilitated
by duty-free and quota-free access, the EU became the largest destination of Bangladeshi
exports, mainly RMG, accounting for around 45 per cent (excluding UK) of total export in the
past few years. However, the US is the single largest export destination accounting for around 15
per cent of Bangladesh's exports.
The country’s export was significantly affected right after the COVID-19 outbreak, because of
the global demand slump followed by rampant order suspension or cancellations of major export
items, ready-made garment, and further deteriorated by the backlog in export shipping. Export
also confronted material input constraint, arisen from the disruption of regional supply-chain.
Destinations of the country’s major export items have been revitalizing from the beginning of
2021 onwards. Export which ended up to USD 33.6 billion in 2020 has recorded a 15% growth
in 2021 and would reach USD 39.7 billion by 2023 under a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario,
according to the Bangladesh.
Reference
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
bangladesh-s-exports-than-its-competitors
[Link]
Fiscal year 2021-22- Bangladesh Bank