Garment exports to new destinations on the rise
Star Business Report

The volume of garment exports to new destinations is on the rise, as manufacturers go for market diversification to bypass the global financial recession, according to industry insiders.
Exporters have been sending garment products to Brazil and Mexico, the two new export destinations for Bangladesh, since mid-2008.
"I have already shipped trousers, shirts and some other woven garments, worth $500,000, to Mexico. More shipments to that country are in the pipeline," Shahadat Hossain Kiron, chairman of Dekko Group, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The group has recently started exporting the products to Brazil, another new destination.
"We look to export to some other new destinations such as Japan, Russia and South Africa as part of our plans to diversify markets. Such efforts are working better as the country has been maintaining a steady growth in exports even in times of recession," Kiron said.
M Ghulam Faruq, chairman of SQ Group, said even though market diversification is taking place, RMG buyers are cutting down the prices.
He said Japan, a RMG market worth $20 billion, is a new market for Bangladesh as exporters have started sending items to that country.
"We only have 0.06 percent market share of the Japanese RMG market, whereas China's pie is 83 percent," Faruq said.
Dispelling any bad impact of the global recession on the local RMG sector, Faruq said the volume of exports to existing markets like the EU and US should also be increased manifold.
Echoing Faruq's views, Fazlul Hoque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), said they are going to Japan in April to hold a single country fair in that country.
"We will hold a single country knitwear fair in Japan as experience predicts that the second largest economy will be a good export destination for Bangladesh," Hoque said.
Meanwhile, the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) has started peddling different products of the country, especially RMG products, to discover new export destinations in the wake of the recession, said Shahab Ullah, the EPB vice-chairman.
He said nine local companies have participated in the Moscow Consume Export 2009 that started January 13 as part of the diversification processes.
"A high-powered business delegation is scheduled to visit Russia soon as a similar visit plan was suspended earlier," he said.
According to EPB statistics, Bangladesh exported woven garments worth $5.350 million and knitwear items worth $7.374 million to Russia in the 2007-08 fiscal year.
At the same time, the country exported woven products worth $32.873 million and knitwear products worth $27.662 million to Mexico.
In Brazil, another emerging export destination for Bangladesh, woven items worth $3.090 million and knitwear items worth $13.281 million were exported in 2007-08.
Bangladesh is also demonstrating export vigour in South Africa. In the same fiscal year, the country exported woven products worth $16.977 million and knitwear products worth $12.211 million to South Africa.
Bangladesh exported woven items worth $20.801 million and knitwear items worth $7.234 million in the 2007-08 fiscal year.