Reuters India, India
DHAKA, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Bangladesh is looking to increase sales of knitted goods to Japan, Eastern Europe and Africa to diversify markets and reduce the impact of global economic shocks on the country’s main export business, a top business leader said on Monday.
“As our biggest markets in America and western Europe are facing a meltdown in the current financial crisis, we are changing focus to Japan, East Europe and African countries to keep our exports not only stable but growing,” said Mohammad Fazlul Hoque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).
“We especially hope to raise our exports to Japan to $1 billion annually over the next few years, from less than $10 million now,” he said at the opening of a three-day knitwear exposition.
Buyers from Japan, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong and Sudan attended the opening.
In the year to end of June 2014, Bangladesh exported ready-made garments worth $10.7 billion, more than half of them knitted textiles, mostly to the United States and Europe.
“But we are already feeling the heat of economic shocks there,” Fazlul said, adding that “too much reliance on only two markets is a risk for the economy.”
The leader of BKMEA, which groups 1,300 knitwear factories employing more than 1 million people, 85 percent of them women, said: “Japan, the fourth largest knitwear importer is our next destination to shield us from the global economic threat.”
“It is very timely decision to target new markets for our principal export products,” said Fakhruddin Ahmed, head of Bangladesh’s military-backed interim government, who inaugurated the exposition.
Fazlul said September buying orders from the U.S. and European countries have declined 10 percent and the trend might continue or even worsen over the coming months as Western economies slow or top into recession.
Since 2002, Bangladesh’s export to Japan — which mainly buys knitwear like pullovers, cardigans, cotton T shirt, jerseys and hosiery items — has been growing nearly 12 percent a year.
“We are able to offer the best bargain prices in four out of the top 10 items imported by Japan…,” he said.
Japan allows duty-free facilities to several developing and least developed countries including Bangladesh.
Sales to Eastern Europe have been growing by over 5 percent a year since those countries began integrating with the European Union, he said.
(Reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir; Writing by Anis Ahmed)
