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Contribution of non-RMG sectors to the country's overall export earnings remained almost static during last one decade, indicating insufficient efforts toward diversification of the product basket and largely reliant on textile and garments.
Non-RMG (readymade garment) items like leather and leather goods, footwear, jute goods, agricultural products, frozen and live fish, engineering products together contributed about 15.91 per cent of the total export receipts in the last fiscal year.
On the other hand, the share of RMG (knit and woven) and textile, including that of hometex and specialised textile, in the export earnings was 84.08 per cent.
The country fetched US$48.28 billion from merchandise exports in the just concluded 2024-25 fiscal, out of which $40.60 billion came from textile and RMG and the remaining $7.68 billion from non-RMG products, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data.
Textile, home textile and specialised textile items fetched $1.25 billion while the RMG sector alone earned $38.23 billion in the last fiscal.
In fiscal 2016-17, textile and apparel sector contributed 83.40 per cent or $29.05 billion to the country's total merchandise shipments worth of US$34.83 billion while non-RMG products fetched $5.77 billion or 16.59 per cent, the official data revealed.
Exports of textile and RMG items increased by over $10 billion during the last decade while that of non-RMG exports including frozen fish, leather and leather goods and jute goods saw a down ward.
Talking to the FE, Tariqul Islam Zaheer, Managing Director of Achia Sea Foods Ltd, said export earnings from his sector has been on the declining trend for more than a decade.
He attributed such downtrend to some factors like scarcity of raw materials, decline in the production, losing competitiveness in the global market, absence of required infrastructure and banking facilities and risk-management coverage, lack of incentive at cultivation level and fall in the global demand for expensive local varieties of shrimps.
Bangladesh follows the traditional way of farming and gets only 350-500 kg of shrimp per hectare, which is the lowest output in the world, he said, adding that the competitor countries including India, Indonesia and Vietnam grow around 10,000 to 12,000 kg of vennami, a high-yielding and low-rated species, per hectare.
As a result, a good number of shrimp processing plants in the country had to face closure during the last five to seven years while most of the operational processing facilities were running much below their capacities, according to the sector insiders.
Mr Zaheer, also a Senior Vice President of Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association (BFFEA), said a total of 112 fish processing plants were operating across the country just five years back and the number now stands at only 20 to 25.
Another exporter said despite making several attempts over the years, they could not introduce low-cost variety of shrimps like vannamei commercially due to some complexities.
According to EPB data, Bangladesh fetched $526.45 million from exports of frozen and live fish in 2016-17 while the amount came down to $441.58 million in the 2024-25 fiscal.
Export earnings from jute and jute goods also declined to $820.16 million in fiscal 2024-24 compared to that of $1.02 billion in fiscal 2017-18.
Exports of leather and leather goods fetched $1.14 billion in the last fiscal while the amount was $1.23 billion in fiscal 2016-17, according to official data.
When asked, Md Abul Hossain, Chairman of Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA), attributed such decline in the exports to fall in the country's jute production due to low price of the fibre at the growers' levels and emergence of plastic products as alternative to it.
Besides, the rate of cash incentives on export of different jute goods was slashed down, which also created a negative impact on the sector's performance, he said.
Moreover, the anti-dumping duty imposed by India on Bangladeshi jute goods has also caused a setback, he noted.
On the other hand, export earnings from agricultural products crossed one-billion dollars to reach $ 1.16 billion in fiscal 2021-22, which latter fell down and could not reach the billion dollar marks again, they added.
However, export earnings from farm products stood at $988.62 million in last fiscal compared to that of $553.17 million in the 2016-17 fiscal, according to official data.
Exporters, however identified a number of factors including cut in the export incentive by the government, higher import cost of agri-inputs and other ingredients, paucity of required air spaces for shipment coupled with higher freight charges for the declining trend in the sector's performance.
Md Monirul Islam, DGM of Alin Foods Export Ltd, recently said some factors, including reduction of cash incentive by the government, have affected the sector's overall exports.
"For the last one year, the rate of cash incentive for the sector has been reduced to 10 per cent from the previous rate of 20 per cent," he said.
The higher rate of cash incentive helped the exporters, especially the small ones, remain competitive in the global markets previously, he added.
munni_fe@yahoo.com