After a six-month struggle due to corona pandemic, the country’s export earnings have bounced back in the first month of current fiscal.

With the return of orders from global buyers, Bangladesh bagged $3.91 billion in July.
Export earnings in the first month of the current fiscal year grew by 0.59 percent or $23.06 million year-on-year from $3.88 billion in the same month of the last fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.

Surprisingly, the earnings were 13.39 percent higher than the strategic target set by the government.

Exporters and analysts termed the growth as a sigh of relief for the falling trend of exports amid order cancellation from all over the world.

They said global market is gradually shrinking and Bangladeshi exporters have to be more cautious and competitive in coming days to keep the growth.

In the last six months, export earnings experienced a drastic fall as the coronavirus pandemic hit the sales of manufacturing goods and the global buyers cancelled or suspended import orders.

Readymade garments, country’s major export earning source that contributes 85 percent to national exports, earned $3.2 billion in the first month of this fiscal, which is 14.18 percent higher than the target.
Of the RMG sector, knitwear items fetched $1.7 billion which was $1.6 billion in July in the previous fiscal year.

However, woven item exports declined by 8.43 percent to $1.49 billion in July which was $1.67 billion in the same month of the previous financial year.

Next to apparel sector, jute and jute products have shown strong growth like the previous months amid corona strike.

In July, export earnings from Jute and jute goods rose by 5.44 percent to $103.51 million which was $74.88 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Export earnings from leather and leather goods in July this year fell by 15.23 percent to $89.94 million from $106.10 million in the same month of last year.

Earnings from frozen and live fish increased by 2.21 percent to $42.52 million while the shrimp export fell by 5.11 percent to $31.73 million in the first month of this fiscal year.