According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh’s revenue from merchandise exports increased positively by 5.04% year over year to $11.37 billion in the first quarter (July–September) of the current fiscal year FY2024–25, driven mostly by the export of ready-made garments.
For the previously mentioned FY24 period, the earnings amounted to $10.82 billion.

The exporters earned $3.5 billion in September of this year, up 6.78% year over year to $3.2 billion in September of 2023, according to EPB data.

The EPB released the export data after a three-month delay due to efforts to reconcile discrepancies in reporting export earnings.
The EPB prepared the data based on real time shipments data as per NBR Asycuda world, EPB Vice-Chairman Anwar Hossain said at a press conference on monthly export earnings review at his office Wednesday afternoon.

He said that from now on they will release a detailed analysis of the export earnings every month.

EPB Director Abu Mukhles Alamgir Hossain presented the keynote at the press conference.

In the first quarter of FY25, the readymade garment (RMG) sector – the country’s highest export earner, earned $9.23 billion, a growth of 5.34% from $8.82 billion in the July-September period of FY24.

The sector had a share of 81.70% in total export earnings.

In July-September of FY25, knitwear earned $5.22 billion, 5.72% higher from $4.94 billion, and woven earned $4.06 billion, 4.85% higher from $3.88 billion from July-September of FY24.

According to EPB data, the sector earned $2.78 billion in September alone, a 6% increase from $2.6 billion in September 2023.

The total exports in July of FY25 were $3.82 billion, which was 2.93% higher than $3.71 billion in the same period of FY24.

Bangladesh’s August export earnings was $4.03 billion, up 5.61% from August FY24’s $3.81 billion.

Bangladeshi exporters earned $3.52 billion in September of FY25, which was 6.78% higher than the $3.30 billion earned in the same period of FY24.

Among other notable sectors, leather and leather goods experienced positive growth of 11.16% to $283.39 million, up from $254.94 million in the first quarter of FY24.

In July-September of FY25, home textiles witnessed a narrow negative growth of 1.21% to $185.52 million, down from $187.8 million in the mentioned period of the last fiscal.

In the first quarter of FY25, export earnings from agricultural products increased by 3.18% to $264.76 million, up from $256.61 million in the same period last fiscal year.

Export receipts from jute and jute goods experienced negative growth of 19.81% to $177.61 million, down from $221.5 million in July-September of FY24, EPB data stated.

Another potential export sector, engineering products, fetched a negative growth of 5.9% to $110.38 million, down from $117.3 million in last FY.

According to the EPB, USA, Germany, UK, Spain, Netherlands, France, India, Poland, Japan, and Italy were the top ten destinations for Bangladeshi exporters in the first quarter of FY25, according to the EPB data.

Regarding the causes of data mismatch, the EPB said that the mismatch occurred due to multiple reasons, including the multiple entry of export products, issues relating to cutting, making, and trimming (CMT), the inclusion of discount, stock lot, and sample products as export items, and the inclusion of EPZ exports as general exports.

Moreover, EPB stated that the inclusion of local export earnings and export receipts that were less than LC values also caused mismatches or discrepancies in the export data.

EPB vice-chairman said that from now on, they will produce a detailed analysis of export earnings every month.

He also said that they will meet with the stakeholders once every month and with the commercial counselors of each mission to identify three to five products to capture that country’s market.

“We are working to digitize the EPB data. EPB, NBR, and BB will work together to ensure that mismatches do not occur in the future. ”

He added that EPB and industry will collaborate on which products are exporting more in each region, ways to increase exports of other products, etc.

Moreover, journalists, academia, and even students outside the industry can provide suggestions and opinions on EPB data.

In July, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) published data showing that actual shipments for the July-April period of the 2023-24 fiscal year were nearly $14 billion lower than the export figures initially reported by the EPB.

The discrepancy between export figures has persisted for at least 12 years, with the gap surpassing $12 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

According to the EPB, the revised export earnings in FY24 was $44.47 billion, which was $55.28 billion in mismatched data.