Bangladesh’s apparel export basket remains heavily skewed toward basic items while significantly lagging behind global market trends in value-added, advanced garment categories, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
Citing figures from EPB and the International Trade Centre (ITC) Trade Map, the report revealed that Bangladesh exported $38.825 billion worth of apparel in calendar year 2025 (CY2025) out of total global exports reaching $426.00 billion.
A breakdown by product categories shows that basic garments—comprising bottomwear, T-shirts, sweaters, innerwear, babies' garments, and small accessories—accounted for 76.94 percent of Bangladesh's total apparel exports, compared to 61.58 percent of total world trade in basic items.
Bottomwear alone constituted 33.68 percent of Bangladesh's export basket, compared to 21.68 percent globally. T-shirts accounted for 18.64 percent of Bangladesh's shipments against 10.09 percent worldwide.
Conversely, small accessories represented the widest structural gap in basic items, making up only 0.35 percent of Bangladesh's exports versus 7.52 percent globally.
In semi-basic categories—specifically shirts and blouses—Bangladesh held a 10.33 percent share of its export basket, higher than the global share of 7.38 percent.
However, in advanced categories such as outerwear, dresses, technical wear, sportswear, and suits, Bangladesh accounted for just 9.35 percent of its total apparel exports against a global market share of 30.46 percent.
The sharpest contrast was observed in outerwear, which is the largest global category at 13.45 percent of world trade, but represents only 3.83 percent of Bangladesh's export basket—making it one of the country's smallest categories despite being the world's largest.
The report also highlighted a data reconciliation issue, noting that a remaining 3.38 percent ($1.313 billion) of Bangladesh's export total does not reconcile to any HS6 product line due to a known EPB gap between 2-digit and 6-digit totals. This discrepancy is notably larger than the world's 0.59 percent rounding gap.
Analyzing the structural composition, the report emphasised that Bangladesh remains overweight in basic categories while being underweight in every advanced category, some by three times or more.
Future growth for the nation's garment sector is more likely to stem from closing the gap in advanced garments rather than expanding basic product lines, the compilation concluded, the data compiled by Bangladesh Apparel Voice (BAV).
