Home ›› 31 Mar 2023 ›› Front
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is going to organise an apparel summit on May 16 in the Australian city of Melbourne, with an aim to diversify the export market of readymade garments.
The BGMEA is likely to hold a similar apparel summit in Sydney also on May 18.
Australia is a potential market for Bangladesh, which is currently dominated by Chinese apparel exporters.
At the summit, BGMEA will showcase new innovations and safety standards of the apparel sector as well as the revolution in eco-friendly manufacturing.
Moreover, the summit will include seminars to discuss investment potentials and the circular economy which is going to be vital for sustainability in the manufacturing industry in the near future.
Commenting on the issue, BGMEA President Faruque Hassan told The Business Post, “Bangladesh’s RMG sector achieved a lot of improvement in the last 10 years, and now we are manufacturing world-class clothes for almost all the global brands.”
“In our summit in Australia, we will showcase our progress as well as our achievements in the fields of green initiatives, research and development, low production cost, and circular economy. We believe that the summit will help us to attract new buyers.”
As part of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Bangladesh is now enjoying duty-free market access to Australia. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh is Australia’s second-largest apparel sourcing hub after China. However, the volume is less than 10 per cent compared to the total RMG import of the country.
Australia market scenario
The World Bank data shows that Australia imported $11 billion worth of textile and apparel products in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which was $9.58 billion in 2019. During these two years, China exported apparel products worth $7.19 billion and $5.67 billion respectively.
On the other hand, Bangladesh exported $713 million and $749 million worth of textile and apparel goods to the country in 2020 and 2019 respectively, though Bangladesh is the second largest apparel sourcing country for Australia, while India holds the third position.
According to media reports, Australia imported apparel products worth $7.40 billion in 2021, while Bangladesh exported goods worth $765.47 million to the country.
BGMEA data shows that Bangladesh exported $930 million worth of clothes to Australia in 2022 and will be in the $1 billion market club this year. In the first eight months of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the country earned $768 million through apparel export, posting a 38.18 per cent year-on-year growth.
Sparrow Group Managing Director Shovon Islam said, “We are performing well in the new markets. Among the new markets, Australia is in the second position after Japan. Hopefully, we will cross $1 billion in earnings from RMG export to Australia in FY23.”
He said, “Now we are manufacturing high-priced clothes by adopting state-of-the-art technology. Besides, our production cost is lower than any other country. That is why Australian buyers also are showing interest in increasing business with Bangladesh.”
Why Australia is important
Industry insiders said that Australia is important to them because of the seasonal issue. Currently, Bangladesh’s apparel sector earns nearly 84 per cent from the traditional markets, namely Europe and North America. Seasonal patterns of the countries in these two continents are almost the same whereas it is the opposite in Australia.
Besides, when Western countries face an economic crisis, it severely affects Bangladesh’s export earnings due to the high dependency on those countries. That is why exporters are looking for alternative markets like Japan and Australia, they said.
Southeast Sweaters Chief Executive Director Mahbubur Rahman Lucky told The Business Post, “We, especially sweater and winter clothes manufacturers, face an order crisis during the August-January period. The buyers of the Australian market are important for us because they buy the same items during our lean period.”
He said, “The Australian buyers do not pay as high as the Western brands. But the prices they offer are higher than the buyers from India, South Africa, and Brazil.”
