In terms of volume, Bangladesh has retained its position as the top exporter of garments and accessories to the UK in the first 10 months of 2023.
In the reporting period, Bangladesh exported 178.39 million kg of garment products to the UK as against 159.25 million kg shipped by China, data from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) informed.
“We were the top clothing exporter to the UK in 2022 and the trend has continued into 2023,” media reports quoted BGMEA President Faruque Hassan as saying.
“Bangladesh’s share of UK’s total apparel imports is 23 percent in value terms and 28 percent in terms of volume,” the BGMEA President added.
“So far, we have been able to secure our position through potential cost savings, timely product delivery, and maintaining quality, which has kept us ahead of the competition in UK,” Faruque stated.
Bangladesh is not at top in terms of value only because, the South Asian country offers the lowest price among its competing countries, when considering average UK apparel import prices.
BGMEA data further revealed that the country’s average price is 21.39 percent lower than China, 32 per cent lower than Turkey, and even 26.75 percent lower than India.
Hasan added that this indicates the absence of Bangladesh in the mid-high price segment of the market and it is necessary to penetrate this market to take the industry forward.
He further said that the key to capturing more global market share is to shift to higher-value products by acquiring capabilities in backward and forward linkage industries.
Bangladesh can add higher value by moving into the mid-high price segment of the market, where a t-shirt or can fetch higher price because of adding value like embroidery, printing and also functionality.
