Knitwear makers are exploring new markets, including Japan, owing to a sharp decline in export orders in recent months, especially due to debt crisis in some of the EU countries.
During July-October of the current fiscal year, knitwear export growth slowed down to 17 per cent from about 38 per cent during the corresponding period a year ago. In fiscal year 2010-11, Bangladesh earned $18 billion from garment exports, registering a significant 42 per cent year-on-year growth.
However, 85 per cent of these shipments were only to two markets – the EU and the US. Thus, the domestic exporters are highly dependent on these two nations and any economic downturn in these nations is bound to have a negative impact in terms of decrease in orders.
In order to decrease their dependence on the EU and the US markets, Bangladesh knitwear manufacturers have already visited Russia, and are planning to visit Japan in January.
The country exported knitwear items worth $ 53 million to Japan during July-October, compared to $ 94 million of exports in fiscal 2010-11.
Confirming about their visit to Japan, Md Hatem, vice-president, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), said, “We are going to Japan on January 23 to participate in a three-day fair scheduled to be held there on January 25-27.
We will be participating in the exhibition under the Bangladesh pavilion. Probably, our commerce minister will also be accompanying us along with the 100-member delegation from the knitwear sector.”
Informing about the purpose of the visit, he said, “We are going there to explore the Japanese market in a broader way. Japan is going to become a ‘China Plus One’ country. So, the knitwear sector is planning to expand its business to that region.”
Providing statistics, he went on, “Since 15 years, Japan has been importing $ 24 billion worth of textile and garment products from the world market. Out of this, 87 per cent imports are from China while from Bangladesh it is only 0.6 per cent. This year, our exports are going up and we wish to increase our share in the Japanese market.”
Revealing about BKMEA’s efforts towards diversification of its export market, he stated, “In October this year, a BKMEA delegation had visited Russia to explore the market and to increase our exports there from 3.7 per cent.
Apart from these, we are looking forward to explore the markets in South Africa and Latin America. In future, we are planning to target India and China also, as we think these will be big markets for us.”
Source: The Independent
If you liked the post then,
Click here to Join us for FREE email updates from "www.apparelmakers.org", so that you do not miss out anything that can be valuable to you and your business!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment