The Russia-Ukraine war has affected almost every part of the world. Consumers in all countries are under pressure due to rising inflation. Still, exports of manufactured garments to the US market are booming. As a result, the export of ready-made garments increased by 51 percent in the first 9 months of this year.

Such information is available from the updated statistics of the Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) of the US Department of Commerce. It can be seen that in the first 9 months of this year, US businessmen have imported 7 thousand 885 million dollars worth of ready-made clothes from different countries of the world. This amount of import is 34.61 percent more than the same period last year.

All in all, from January to September this year, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have exported $7.55 billion worth of ready-made garments to the United States. At this time last year, exports were worth $5 billion. Accordingly, the export has increased by 50.98 percent in the first 9 months of this year.

According to Atexa data, Bangladesh exported $103 million worth of ready-made garments to the US market last March. In the next 2 months, 82 and 81 million dollars worth of garments were exported respectively. In June, it increased to 90 million dollars. In July it decreased to 69 million dollars, but in August it increased again to 92 million dollars. In the last month of September, 91 million dollars worth of garments were exported.

According to Atexa data, Bangladesh has long been the third top apparel exporter in the US market. In this market last year, Bangladesh exported 715 million dollars worth of ready-made garments. This income was about 37 percent more than in 2020.
The US has always been a big market for Bangladeshi clothing. After the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, exports to the market dropped when questions were raised about the working environment of garment factories.

The situation began to change in 2019 due to the trade war between China and the United States. Bangladesh has also made great progress in improving the working environment of factories. In 2019, it exported 593 million dollars worth of clothing. The next year also got off to a great start. However, due to the corona epidemic, the exports are going down. At the end of 2020, apparel exports worth 5.23 billion dollars. Bangladesh turned around in the market from May last year.

Mohiuddin Rubel, director of BGMEA, an association of ready-made garment industry owners, said that Bangladesh’s growth is higher than that of the top exporter of ready-made garments in the United States. It is very positive. He also said that during the Corona period, due to keeping the factory running with preventive measures, confidence is created among the buyers. Apart from that, the purchase order from China is moving little by little due to various reasons. Bangladesh is also getting a part of that purchase. All in all, the position of Bangladeshi garments in the US market is getting stronger.
China is the top apparel exporter in the US market. In the first 9 months of this year, China exported 1,772,600,000 dollars worth of ready-made garments. During the same period last year, their exports were worth 1,374 million dollars. Accordingly, China’s exports increased by 28.94 percent in January-September this year. China exported $1,961 million worth of clothing to the US market last year. Their export in 2020 was 1 thousand 515 million dollars.

Vietnam is the second largest exporter to the US market. In the first nine months of this year, the country exported ready-made garments worth $1,459 million, which is 34.69 percent higher than the same period last year. Vietnam exported $1,437 million worth of clothing last year. At that time their growth was 14.33 percent.

In addition, in the first 9 months of this year, Indonesia exported 444 million dollars, India 463 million, Mexico 240 million, Honduras 239 million, Cambodia 352 million, Pakistan 218 million, and Korea 17 million dollars.