Knitwear exports from Bangladesh leapt by nearly a third in the first seven months of the current 2021-22 fiscal. Figures for the first seven months of the July 2021-June 2022 year show that knitwear garments export rose 32.9 percent year on year to $13.27 bn with woven garment exports registering an increase of 27.2 percent to $10.71 bn.
The latest figures from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) show that Bangladesh earned $29.55 bn from exports in the July-January period, compared to $22.67 mn a year earlier. Of this, earnings from ready-made knitwear and woven garment items surged 30.3 percent to account for $24 bn of the total. Bangladesh has set its total export goal for the 2021-22 fiscal years at $43.5 bn, including $35.1 bn from ready-made garment sector.
Elsewhere, the government has revised the maximum wastage rate for the knitwear sector in producing apparel products — from yarns to fabrics and fabrics to garments — to up to 32 percent as per the readymade garment makers’ demand. The commerce ministry has opted to revise the wastage rate just two months after setting the depreciation rate up to 30 percent.Though the government had doubled the wastage rate for the knitwear subsector to up to 30 percent from 16 percent, knitwear makers opposed t
he decision and sent a letter to the Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi demanding the maximum depreciation rate up to 35 percent.
The maximum wastage rate is important for knitwear manufacturers because if the production wastage rate of an export-oriented readymade garment manufacturer, who enjoys a duty-free facility for raw material imports, is less than the prescribed rate, they sell the excess raw materials on the open market.
