The country’s export earnings grew 20 per cent to cross $9 billion in nine months to March on the back of strong performance of woven garment, home textile, frozen foods and footwear. Officials of the Export Promotion Bureau said, woven garments, the top of the product list, returned to a refreshing uptrend in recent months from last two years’ depressing mood. EPB’s monthly report released on May 13 showed that during July-March period of the current fiscal year, Bangladeshi exporters shipped $9036 million worth of manufactured products and commodities, up from $7517 million of the same period of the previous fiscal. The export target for July-March period was fixed at $ 8990 million. Despite growth knitwear missed the export target by 4.30 percent. Knitwear fetched $3335.22 million against the target of $3485.28 million.

During the July-March period, woven garments fetched $3505.73 million against $2965.04 million in the corresponding period of the last financial year, showing 18.24 percent export growth. Frozen foods, ceramic products, handicrafts, footwear, cut flowers, agro processed goods and engineering products also registered significant increases, contributing to the overall export growth. Exports of jute goods, pharmaceuticals, chemical fertilizer, raw jute, vegetables, tobacco, bi-cycle, tea and electronic goods declined.

On month-to-month basis, the overall exports of March 2007 were 13.40 percent higher.