BGMEA: Bangladesh surpasses China in value of knitwear exports to EU

Bangladesh exported the most knitwear items—both in dollar value and in volume—to the European Union between January and September this year than any other country from which the EU imports, according to the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

A reason why Bangladesh is doing exceedingly well in the EU in the knitwear sector is the recent investments in higher value-added items, especially active-wear, BGMEA president Faruque Hassan said.

He believes Bangladesh knitwear exporters can make a significant shift in this area of non-cotton-based athleisure items amd the country would keep setting landmarks for more product categories in coming years.

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"Most importantly the amount of investment the industry is making toward responsible and sustainable manufacturing, has set an example in the world," he was quoted as saying by domestic media reports.

The EU's knitwear imports from Bangladesh during the nine-month period were worth $9 billion, while these were worth $8.96 billion from China, Faruque noted.

The EU's clothing import in volume from Bangladesh exceeded the import from China for the first time last year, he noted.

"We have also topped the sourcing country list of USA for Denim in 2020 exceeding Mexico,” he said.

"Bangladesh became the top sourcing destination for the USA for 'cotton apparel' during January-June 2023, however as Vietnam's export to USA rebounded since July, we fell behind Vietnam marginally in this category during January-October 2023,” he said.

Bangladesh had a 14.55% share in the $47.5-billion US cotton apparel market in 2022.
On the other hand, apparel exports to the United States also declined by 23.33% year on year to $5.78 billion last year for the same reasons, according to the US office of textiles and apparel data.