Bangladesh’s garment exporters are cheerful with their performance of last year. Garment export sales have attained a high of $9.3 billion out of a total 12.18 billion in earnings in the last financial year to June 2007. A leading garment exporting group of the country has forecast that the exports are expected to double to $18 billion by 2010. Bangladesh is witnessing an unprecedented demand for their garments due to the depreciation of dollar and higher valuation in Chinese and Indian currencies, making the products cheaper.
Anwar ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez, the head of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, was confident with the over all exports. He said that the nation’s exports have grown by 58 per cent in a short span of seven months to over a staggering $5.8 billion. Exports are estimated to reach the level of $11 billion in the fiscal year 2007-08. Opex, a prominent garment exporter group has built two massive denim manufacturing plants to cater to the present and future needs. Each unit is capable of producing 100,000 meters a day and claimed that their exports would increase from last year’s $250 million to $300 million this year. Many other exporters admitted that they too have similar projects to meet the demands.
The garment industry is the back bone of Bangladesh’s manufacturing industry, accounting for 80 per cent of total exports and not to mention, country’s 40 per cent of industrial jobs. But the exporters are apprehensive about the soaring food prices which will incite the workers to demand for higher salary. A garment worker in Bangladesh, on an average draws a basic salary of meager $25 a month. Traders feel higher salaries will reflect in the prices of the products, in turn will make Bangladeshi garment markets to be less attractive to the US and the European countries that are teetering by slow down. Parvez said that the Association has urged the government to provide rice for 2.5 million workers for a subsidized rate to sustain with the current growth.