The country’s export earnings in March for the first time showed negative growth of 7.23 per cent in current fiscal year totalling $1,982.26 million against $2,136.86 million fetched in March last year.
The strategic target of export earning for March this fiscal was $2342.60 million.
According to the statistics of the Export Promotion Bureau released on Sunday, export earnings in the first three quarters (July-March) of the current fiscal year, however, witnessed a 10.36 per cent growth to $17,886.06 million, driven by moderate performance of RMG, frozen foods, footwear, and leather and leather products.
The overall figure for the nine-month period was, however, 6.15 per cent lower than the strategic target of $19,058.80 million.
Total export earnings during the last fiscal stood at $22,924.38 million, which was higher by 23.92 per cent than the target of $18,500 million.
According to the EPB statistics for the July-March period, woven garments fetched the bulk of the earnings with $7,108.59 million that represented a 19.24 per cent growth over the same period last year while knitwear accounted for $6,996.26 million having a growth of 5.92 per cent.
During the period, the export of home textiles totalled $645.78 million with a good growth of 11.38 per cent; footwear exports fetched $260.85 million, primary commodities $756.39 million, frozen foods including frozen fish, shrimps and others $473.53 million, and agricultural products $282.86 million.
Of the other major performing commodities, fruits exports totalled $40.78 million with a 49 per cent growth, computer services (July-January) 38.47 million having 73.21 per cent growth, cement, salt and stone $10.07 million while tea export accounted for $2.52 million with a 9.09 per cent growth.
The export trend for leather and leather products and plastic products maintained their upward trend during the July-March period.
Leather exports totalled $236.83 million, while leather products $59.26 million, cotton and cotton products together earned $77.80 million, plastic products $67.15 million and rubber fetched $11.83 million. The country also earned $25.62 million from ceramic exports.
The export of jute and jute goods during the July-March period declined to $710.57 million, registering a 12.49 per cent fall. Raw jute exports fetched $198.55 million with a 25.88 per cent decline, jute yarn and twine $341.06 million, and other items brought some $34.76 million.
Jute sacks and bags, however, notched a positive growth of 7.82 per cent as exports totalled $136.20 million.
Engineering products, including iron and steel, bicycle and electronic products fetched almost $260.15 million. Engineering equipments fetched $35.89 million with a growth of 107.34 per cent.
The export of manmade filaments and staple fibres totalled $55.88 million, caps $36.60 million while the export of ships, boats and floating structures fetched $24.32 million.
The export of handicrafts totalled $3.49 million, while paper and paper products $20.10 million, furniture $18.84 million, chemical products $85.52 million (including pharmaceuticals $34.13 million), while ores, slag and ash brought $19.77 million.
Specialized textiles, including terry towel, showed a negative growth of 23.61 per cent, earning $96.20 million during the July-March period of the current fiscal while export of petroleum byproducts accounted for just $207.01 million.