Bangladesh’s ready-made garments (RMG) exports retained its firm footing on the non-traditional markets as it has shown tremendous growth there among other destinations during the just-concluded fiscal year. The non-traditional markets include Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and Turkey.

Bangladesh’s export to non-traditional markets rose by 10.48 per cent to $4.31 billion, which was $3.9 billion a year ago, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). During the just-concluded fiscal, Bangladesh earned total $28.09 billion from exports with 10.48 per cent jump in the apparel products. The share of the ready-made garments in the total annual export of $34.24 billion is 82 per cent. The exporters attributed the growth to the government incentives, increased capacity and productivity, entrepreneurs’ resilience and improvement of workers’ safety standards at factories.

Meanwhile, RMG export to European Union countries posted an 11.63 per cent rise to $17.15 billion, which was $15.36 billion a year ago. While the export to US market, the single largest export destination for Bangladesh, has registered 6.37 per cent growth to $5.62 billion in FY16, against $5.28 billion in the previous FY15. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of apparel products after China and the country is taking the benefits of shifting of factories from China. Its global market share is 5.1 per cent as of 2014.