Japan’s Apparel Imports from Bangladesh Defy Global Bearish Trend

Due to the Russia-Ukraine war and high inflation in the developed world, global export demand remained negative in the second half of 2022. However, Bangladeshi clothing imports into Japan broke the trend. The imports last year were up 15.02 percent from the year before, totaling $1,340.256 million. In the first three months of the current year, the upward trend continued.

Japan’s inbound shipment of apparel from Bangladesh increased from $1,165.457 million in 2021 to $1,340.256 million in 2022, according to The market research tool TexPro from Fibre2Fashion. The import increased from $1,122.539 million in 2018 to $1,167.965 million in 2019. But because of COVID-19, it decreased to $1,033.232 million in 2020.

The import increased to $363.939 million in Q1 2023 from $333.741 million in Q4 2022 and $354.094 million in Q1 2022, on a quarterly basis. The trade remained erratic, dropping to $295.432 million in the second quarter of 2022 but rising to $358.277 million in the third. It further slipped to $333.741 million in Q4, 2022, as per TexPro.

Additionally, from $1,108.184 million in 2021, the value of textile imports from Bangladesh rose to $1,733.501 million in 2022. Prior to this, it was mentioned as being worth $1,689.953 million in 2020, $1,843.536 million in 2019, and $2,841.596 million in 2018.

As per TexPro, The third-largest supplier of clothing to Japan was Bangladesh. However, its share of Japan’s total 2022 apparel imports, which totaled $24.953 billion, was only 5.37 percent. With a share of 55.32 percent of the total inbound shipment, China was the top supplier, followed by Vietnam with a share of 15.85 percent.

Reference: www.fibre2fashion.com