Garment exports down 3.19% to $1.8B in Jan-Aug

The country’s export earnings from garments and textiles continued to weaken, dropping by another 3.19 percent to $1.807 billion in the first eight months of the year from $1.867 billion in the same period last year, the Garment and Textile Export Board (GTEB) reported yesterday.

The GTEB, however, said the latest decline was slower compared with the previous drops, raising hopes that the industry will manage a full year average growth of zero percent.

A zero growth this year would be better than the 2.7 decline recorded by the industry last year.

GTEB Executive Director Serafin Juliano also released export figures for the first seven months of the year which showed earnings of only $1.627 billion, or a 4.3 percent drop from $1.7 billion in the same period last year.

Juliano is optimistic that in the second half of the year, garments and textile exports would recover even more as most of the exports would be autumn and winter clothes which normally cost more.

He explained though, the recovery would be more in terms of value rather than an increase in unit sales.

Shipments to quota countries amounted to $1.604 billion during the eight-month period, a 3.04 percent drop from $1.655 billion recorded a year ago.

Exports to quota countries account for 88.65 percent of the country’s total garments and textile exports.

Exports to non-quota countries amounted to $202.8 million, registering a decline of 4.3 percent compared to the $211.908 million in exports posted a year ago.

The decline in garments and textile exports even to non-quota countries, including Japan which accounts for almost 28 percent of the market, Juliano said, was due to the slow recovery of the Japanese economy.

Fortunately, Juliano highlighted the fact that there is a strong growth in exports to the European market of 26.05 percent, amounting to $290.9 million and which now accounts for 16.09 percent of the country’s total garment shipments.

The increase in exports to Europe is a move away from the traditional US market.