The country’s single month merchandise shipments in April this year witnessed 82.85 per cent negative growth to only US$520.01 million, the lowest during the current fiscal year, according to data.
Export earnings were $3.03 billion in April'19 and $2.73 billion in the last month of the current calendar year.
The monthly export earnings during the period under review also showed a downtrend, except in the months of July and December.
The overall export fell by 13.09 per cent to US$29.49 billion in the first ten months of the current 2019-20 fiscal year (FY), against $33.93 billion in the corresponding period of last FY.
The earnings also fell short of the target set for the period by 21.24 per cent, according to the provisional data of the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
Exporters and experts attributed closure of factories, lockdown in major export destinations followed by slow demands and orders cancellation and hold up due to ongoing Covid-19 pandemic for the drastic fall in performance.
Majority of the export-oriented factories including RMG remained closed since March 26 to April 25 due to the public holidays amid coronavirus outbreak, they added.
The RMG (readymade garment) sector fetched nearly $24.47 billion during July-April period of FY 20 against $28.49 billion during the same period a year earlier, registering a 14.08 per cent negative growth.
The earnings also fell short of target set for the period by 22.14 per cent.
Earnings from woven garments fell by 14.31 per cent to $12.34 billion during the period. Proceeds from knitwear exports fell by 13.85 per cent to nearly $12.13 billion, the EPB data show.
The woven and knitwear exports fetched $14.40 billion and $14.08 billion respectively in July-April period of last fiscal.
Earnings from other key sectors also fell during the first ten months of the current FY, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The EPB provisional data showed that earnings from home textile stood at $620.9 million, down by 14.19 per cent from $723.59 million. It fell short of the target by 15.33 per cent.
According to the EPB data, export earnings from leather and leather goods fell by 16.26 per cent to $700.93 million during the period under review from $837.07 million of the corresponding period of last FY.
Jute and jute goods exports, however, increased by 13.78 per cent to $791.33 million from $695.52 million.
Pharmaceuticals exports also grew by 2.69 per cent to $114.71 million.
Agro-products, like - vegetables, fruits and spices, fetched $755.8 million, a 4.44 per cent down from $790.9 million.
Frozen and live fish exports fetched $411.91 million in the first eight months of this fiscal, registering a negative growth of 7.74 per cent.
Exports from plastic also witnessed a negative growth of 14.25 per cent to $86.05 million during July-April period of FY 2019-20.
Ceramic products exports during the period decreased by 59.35 per cent to $25.66 million from $63.12 million.
The country brought in $40.53 billion by exporting goods during last fiscal, of which about $34.13 billion came from textiles and clothing alone, the data show.
Munni_fe@yahoo.com