'Slide in a single month is not worrisome,' AKM Fazlul Hoque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said adding that loss of significant orders from global buyers who were anxious with the political unrest in Bangladesh in late 2006 might have resulted in slide of the overall exports.
The latest export figures shows earnings from frozen foods in seven months grew by 21 per cent to $331 million, home textiles 60 per cent to $152 million, footwear 30 per cent to $64 million while handicrafts, ceramic products, a gro-processed foods also performed well.
Raw jute earned $84 million, leather $150 million and bi-cycle $32 million achieving growths in the period though they fell behind the targets. Jute goods earned $191 million, textile fabrics $24 million, pharmaceuticals $16 million and tea $2.42 million—all posted negative growth compared to the same period of the last fiscal.
Exports of manufactured products, which share more than 90 per cent of export earnings, marked 22 per cent increase in terms of volume but lost 0.03 per cent in terms of price. The country's export earnings target for the current fiscal has been set at $12.5 billion with 19 per cent growth. Exporters earned $10.5 billion, including $7.9 billion from readymade garments, in the fiscal 2005-06, with about 22 per cent growth over the previous year.
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