Bangladesh’s $38.7 bn apparel exports hide 151 factory closures

Bangladesh**;s apparel exports slipped only *.** per cent in FY****–**, but that modest decline masks a far more disruptive restructuring. Factory exits, mass retrenchments and new investment are occurring simultaneously, while TexPro data shows evidence that trade has become materially more concentrated by product or destination. The missing story is increasingly at factory level: Which manufacturers are losing orders, and which are absorbing them?

The number behind the headline

Bangladesh earned $**.** billion from ready-made garment (RMG) exports in FY****–**, compared with $**.** billion a year earlier, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data published by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). That resilience has fuelled claims that hundreds of factory closures barely affected national performance.

However, the widely circulated figure of *** closures covers industrial units across several sectors between August **** and June ****. Law-enforcement data show that *** were non-RMG factories. The clearly identified textile-apparel portion comprised *** BGMEA members, ** Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) members and eight Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) units – *** factories in total – alongside ** Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA)-affiliated units whose sectors were not specified.