The country’s export earnings in the July-April period of the current financial year 2020-21 grew by 8.74 per cent to $32.07 billion from $29.49 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year riding on moderate performance of readymade garments.
Export earnings in April 2021, however, increased by 502.75 per cent to $3.13 billion from $520.01 million in the same month of the previous year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau data released on Sunday.
The country’s RMG factories remained almost closed in April 2020 as the government announced a general holiday to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Exporters said that the export data showed positive growth in the first 10 months of FY21 compared with that in the same period of the previous fiscal year as the pandemic caused business to come to a halt on both the local and international markets.
A comparison of the export data with the scenario of 2020 would not show the real picture and the data should rather be compared with that of FY19, they said.
The EPB data showed that export earnings from RMG in July-April of FY21 grew by 6.24 per cent to $26 billion from $24.48 billion in the same period of FY20.
Earnings from woven garments in July-April of FY21, however, fell by 2.71 per cent to $12 billion from $12.34 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Export earnings from knitwear in the first 10 months of FY21 grew by 15.34 per cent to $14 billion from $12.13 billion in the same period of FY20.
The data showed that export earnings from home textiles in JulyApril of FY21 grew by 54.12 per cent to $956.93 million from $620.9 million in the same period of FY20.
Earnings from leather and leather goods in the first 10 months of FY21 grew by 8.56 per cent to $760.92 million from $700.93 million in the corresponding period of FY21.
Earnings from leather-footwear exports in July-April of FY21 grew by 11.76 per cent to $461.72 million from $413.15 million while other leather products fetched $203.10 million with a 2.94-per cent growth in the period.
Export earnings from jute and jute goods in the 10 months of FY21 grew by 30.88 per cent to $1.03 billion from $791.33 million in the same period of FY20.
Export earnings from agricultural products in the period increased by 9.1 per cent to $824.59 million from $755.8 million.
Export of engineering products in July-April of FY21 grew by 66.78 per cent to $435.74 million from $261.26 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Export earnings from frozen and live fish declined by 4.17per cent to $394.73 million and earnings from shrimp export fell by 11.92 per cent to $261.63 million in the 10 months of FY21.