India to resume cotton export

India, the second largest producer of cotton, yesterday lifted a ban on cotton export, at a time when Bangladesh is lobbying with Uzbekistan to strike a deal to ensure smooth supply for local spinners.

Bangladesh, which is fully dependent on imported cotton, went for an alternative to Indian as the neighbouring country has been frequently imposing ban on the export of the item for the last two years.

A delegation led by Commerce Secretary Ghulam Hussain is already scheduled to leave for Uzbekistan on May 4 to seek a state-level deal to reduce dependence on India.

India came up with the restriction several times last year and this year. The latest one came on March 5 mainly to build up the country's domestic stocks.

However, Bangladeshi spinners welcomed the yesterday's decision.

“The dependence on Indian cotton is increasing due to the country's geographical proximity. It takes shorter lead-time if we import cotton from India. Of course, the latest move is a positive sign for us,” said Jahangir Alamin, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association.

Production in the local spinning sub-sector faces troubles due the frequent changes in India's decision.

This time India changed its decision amid protests from its traders and on forecast of a higher yield, said a Bloomberg report, quoting Commerce Minister of India Anand Sharma yesterday.

Sharma said the traders can register for fresh shipment contracts within a day or two.

Sharma told this to journalists in New Delhi after a meeting of a panel of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, according to the Bloomberg report.

Another reason for the previous ban was that exports surged 9.5 million bales (a bale weighs 170 kilograms or 375 pounds), the quantity that surpassed government estimates.

“Based on the revised estimates of cotton production by the Cotton Advisory Board as well as the agriculture ministry, we have decided to remove the suspension on registration of cotton exports,” Bloomberg quoted Sharma as saying.

Bangladesh imported more than 39.39 lakh bales of cotton in the year through June 2011, according to data from the commerce ministry.

Of the total amount, 41.82 percent was imported from India, 35.31 percent from Uzbekistan and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, 7.68 percent from Africa (East and West) and 15.19 percent from other countries, including the US, Australia, Pakistan and China.

News: The Daily Star, Tue, 01/05/2012

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RMG Export Growth May Remain Sluggish for Global Slowdown

The growth of exports in the country's apparel sector is likely to remain sluggish in the current fiscal year (FY), due to the ongoing global slowdown, exporters said on Tuesday.


They said the export growth of ready-made garments (RMG) and knitwears would be below 20 per cent in the current FY against around 42 per cent in the previous fiscal year when the apparel sector fetched a record $17.9 billion.

Experts said despite a persistent global slowdown, mainly in the United States and the European Union, the growth in garments exports were still encouraging and remarkable.

The European Union and the United States take more than 90 per cent of Bangladesh apparel products, officials of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said.

In the first half of the current FY the exports of woven items grew by 22.56 per cent to $4.46 billion while knit posted 11.12 per cent growth to $4.79 billion, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

During the same period in the last FY 2011 woven and knit registered a growth of 40.79 per cent and 43.39 per cent respectively, the EPB data said.

This year export of woven garments made a great stride compared to the growth of knit products because of the increase in their demand with the European Union offering EBA (everything but arms) facility under the generalised system of preference, traders said.

The BGMEA had set an export target of $20.29 billion at the onset of the current FY, when the overall exports were projected at $26.5 billion.

"We may not reach the target set for the current FY, but definitely the exports will be more than what we achieved in the apparel sector last fiscal year," Md. Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of BGMEA told the FE.

"The exports are still satisfactory despite the bad days(slowdown)," the BGMEA president added.

Meanwhile, the overall exports crossed $11 billion mark in the first half of the current FY and as such officials of the ministry of commerce (MoC) said they were confident of meeting the overall export target by the end of the FY.

Apparel exports constitute 80 per cent of the overall exports, they said.

"Big export growth does not recur every year. But the growth which we have achieved in the first half of the current fiscal is very much remarkable," Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, a senior vice president of BGMEA said.

Source: 

 The Financial Express, Wed, 25/01/2012

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Knitwear exporters to explore Japanese market

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

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