Global home textile exports surged by 9.9 per cent Y-o-Y to $84.61 million in Feb’24, compared to $77 million in the same month of the previous fiscal year, as per data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB). 

However, over the past 18 months, the sector’s export income has been fluctuating, ranging from a low of $1.04 billion in September 2021 to a high of $1.74 billion in April 2022, for FY’21-22. Unfortunately, in the subsequent fiscal year of 2022-23, exports plummeted to nearly half their previous levels across all months.

This decline was not exclusive to Bangladesh; it was a global trend. According to the International Trade Center, China, the leading exporter of home textiles, saw a 10 per cent decline in exports to $37.66 billion in 2022. Similarly, India's exports dropped by 9.88 per cent to $6.02 billion, while Pakistan managed to buck the trend with a 2.17 per cent increase to $5.64 billion. The global home textile export market, valued at $122.90 billion in 2020, dwindled to $91 billion the following year, and further to $85 billion last year.

Entrepreneurs attribute this multifaceted decline to various factors, chief among them being the repercussions of the Russia-Ukraine war a year and a half ago. This geopolitical turmoil dampened demand in key markets such as the European Union (EU) and the United States. Moreover, domestic factors like the 3 per cent increase in gas prices exacerbated the situation, leading to a rise in production costs by approximately half a dollar per kilogram.