Photo : Collected
Value addition in the readymade garment (RMG) sector hit a record 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.
The growth was primarily driven by increased shipments of knitwear products and other high value-added items, exporters said. According to the Bangladesh Bank report titled “Quarterly Review on RMG: January-March FY24,” the import value of raw materials, including raw cotton, synthetic/viscose fibre, 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 exports.
As a result, the net exports from the RMG sector stood at $9.97 billion in the third quarter of FY24, 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.
The Bangladesh Bank data showed that export earnings from the knitwear sector in the 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’s nine main destinations — the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Belgium — totalled at $9.32 billion.
Messenger/Fameema
