Bangladesh’s export earnings in April declined by 82.85 per cent year-on-year as the demand for goods shrank on the global market and the production remained suspended in the country in the month due to the global coronavirus outbreak. The country’s single month export earnings in April this year decreased to $520.01 million from $3.03 billion in the same month of 2019, according to the Export Promotion Bureau provisional data released on Thursday. Exporters said that the fall was unavoidable for the country as the export business came almost to a halt in April due to the coronavirus pandemic. They see no positive sign in the coming months as the global buyers cancelled or halted many export orders and are not placing new orders. The country’s export earnings in the July-April period of the current financial year 2019-20 fell by 19.09 to $29.49 billion from $33.93 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year, the EPB data showed. The export earnings from readymade garments in the 10 months of FY20 fell by 14.04 per cent to $24.48 billion from $28.49 billion in the same period of FY19. The earnings from woven garments fell by 14.31 per cent to $12.34 billion in the period while the earnings from knitwear exports dropped by 13.85 per cent to $12.13 billion, the EPB data showed. Mohammad Hatem, senior vice-president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said that the export performance showed in the data in April was unavoidable as they shipped only 15 per cent of their estimated export target due to the pandemic. He said that the country’s RMG exporters would have to face trouble at least for six months as the placing of new orders by western buyers was still uncertain. The earnings from leather and leather goods in July-April of FY20 fell by 16.26 per cent to $700.93 million from $837.07 million in the corresponding period of FY19. The earnings from leather foot wear decreased by 15.86 per cent to $413.15 million in the period. Analysing the EPB data, Leathergoods and Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh in a press release said that the country’s leather products and footwear export sector, the second highest export earner for Bangladesh, as a whole registered a decline of 77.94 per cent export revenue year-on-year in April due to the coronavirus pandemic. It said that the export of leather products fell by 82.47 per cent whereas leather footwear fell by 77.94 per cent in April. ‘This unprecedented export fall is due to most retailers, chain stores and shops remain closed in major export markets of the sector such as in the European Union countries like Germany, Italy, France, and others, the United States and Japan,’ Md Saiful Islam, president of the LFMEAB, said in the release. He said that LFMEAB member factories had been facing huge economic impact because of declining business and current orders situation amid the coronavirus crisis. The EPB data showed that the export earnings from home textile stood at $620.9 million in July-April of FY20, down 714.19 per cent from $723.59 million in the same period of FY19. Jute and jute goods exports, however, increased by 13.78 per cent to $791.33 million from $695.52 million. Agro-products like vegetables, fruits and spices, fetched $755.8 million with a 4.44-per cent negative growth. Frozen and live fish exports fetched $411.91 million in the 10 months of this fiscal, registering a negative growth of 7.74 per cent, the data showed.
