Bangladesh : Boost In Garment Exports Order

The export orders for the Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) products have been increasing recently owing to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in some countries of Asia. The export order specially for Knitwear products was going up. However, the exporters are hesitant to receive the orders due to some problems inside the country.

The buyers of Europe and USA are not going to China, which is the largest exporters of knitwear, due to outbreak of SARS there. The buyers are now turning to some other countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Indonesia for their imports. The orders being placed for Bangladeshi RMG products are considerably higher than that for any other country at present.

Meanwhile, foreign buyers are coming to Bangladesh to visit the Knitwear Industries here and they are showing interest in importing local products.

According to the sources, government cash incentive against the export of RMG sector to the tune of Tk 600 crore remains outstanding at present. The Knitwear exporters are buying local yarn at a higher price to get the cash incentive. As they are not getting this in time, some industries are going to be closed down.

Sources also said that the price of local yarn is two dollar 55 cent per kg while the price of imported Indian yarn is two dollar 10 cent per kg. It is evident that the knitwear exporters have to knitwear exporters have to pay extra 40 to 45 cent per kg to buy local yarn and this causes financial problem to them.

Some knitwear exporters said, "The Government has banned import of yarn by road and we have to pay an additional amount of Tk. 22 to 22 thousand per container for importing yarn by ship which is time consuming too."

While Manjurul Haq, President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) asked government to pay the outstanding cash incentive and withdraw ban on yarn import by road immediately.