Though the overall European Union (EU) import growth has been modest over the last five years, Bangladesh has performed better than several key competitors in the EU market.
According to Eurostat, the EU garment import market has expanded over 2021-2025, but growth has clearly slowed in the most recent period.
However, analyzing the statistics over the last two years from 2024 to 2025, it was found that the EU's garment imports from the world increased by only 2.10%, from 88.15 billion euro to 90.00 billion euro.
During this two-year period, imports from Bangladesh grew by 5.97% to 19.41 billion euro.
Besides, imports from China rose marginally by 1.17% from 26.27 billion euro to 26.58 billion euro during this period while imports from Bangladesh grew by 5.97% from 18.32 billion euro to $19.41 billion. In contrast, imports from Turkey declined by 10.73% over the same period.
However, over the longer period from 2021 to 2025, the picture is different. The EU's garment imports from the world increased from 72.25 billion euro to 90.00 billion euro, a rise of 24.56%. During this time, imports from China grew by 21.48% (21.88bn euro to 26.58bn euro), from Bangladesh by 35.81% (14.30bn euro to 19.41bn euro), and from India by 33.18% (3.40bn euro to 4.52bn euro). Imports from Turkey, however, declined by 9.48%, from 9.22 billion euro in 2021 to 8.34 billion euro in 2025.
Talking to BSS, Mohiuddin Rubel, Former Director, BGMEA and Additional Managing Director, Denim Expert Ltd, said, "While overall EU import growth has been modest over the last two years, Bangladesh has performed better than several key competitors. Nearly 6 percent growth in a market expanding just above 2 percent is a positive signal if we consider the whole year" he said.
Rubel added, "Compared to China and Turkey, Bangladesh has strengthened its relative position over the long run. This reflects our competitive pricing, supply chain resilience, and sustained buyer confidence as a whole. But, at the end of the year, we were not able to hold our position. "
He said even though Bangladesh showed positive overall growth for the year, the second half was very tough and turned negative. It is also true that Europe as a whole ended the year in a negative trend, as did China. However, the difference is that the negative result for Bangladesh was much stronger than for China and a few other competitors.
At the same time, prices dropped significantly due to overall price pressure in Europe. Despite this, Bangladesh managed to grow in volume, as the EU needed to cover increased demand while pushing prices down aggressively across all suppliers.
Rubel further added that China's competitiveness has enabled it to reduce prices even more than Bangladesh and many other countries in order to sustain growth. At the same time, as the political situation in Bangladesh is now stable and the new government is expected to play an effective role in enhancing competitiveness, Bangladesh can perform much better in the coming days, provided the global situation does not deteriorate significantly.
This price pressure affected almost all countries to some extent, except Vietnam and Turkey, which were less impacted compared to others. �"BSS
