B Mirror Report: Although overall import growth in the European Union (EU) has remained moderate over the past five years, Bangladesh has outperformed several major competitors in the EU apparel market.

Data from Eurostat show that while the EU garment import market expanded during 2021–2025, the pace of growth slowed notably in the most recent period.

An analysis of the latest two-year data from 2024 to 2025 indicates that the EU’s total garment imports from the world rose by just 2.10 percent, increasing from €88.15 billion to €90.00 billion.

In contrast, imports from Bangladesh recorded a stronger growth of 5.97 percent during the same period, reaching €19.41 billion from €18.32 billion.

Meanwhile, imports from China edged up marginally by 1.17 percent, rising from €26.27 billion to €26.58 billion. Turkey, however, experienced a decline of 10.73 percent in its garment exports to the EU over the two-year span.

Looking at the broader period from 2021 to 2025, the EU’s total garment imports increased by 24.56 percent, climbing from €72.25 billion to €90.00 billion.

During this time, Bangladesh registered a robust growth of 35.81 percent, with exports to the EU rising from €14.30 billion to €19.41 billion. China’s exports grew by 21.48 percent, from €21.88 billion to €26.58 billion, while India posted a 33.18 percent increase, from €3.40 billion to €4.52 billion. In contrast, Turkey’s exports declined by 9.48 percent, dropping from €9.22 billion in 2021 to €8.34 billion in 2025.

Speaking to BSS, Mohiuddin Rubel, former Director of BGMEA and Additional Managing Director of Denim Expert Ltd, said that despite modest overall EU import growth in the last two years, Bangladesh has performed comparatively better than several key competitors.

“Nearly six percent growth in a market expanding just above two percent is a positive signal when we consider the full year,” he said.

Rubel noted that over the long term, Bangladesh has strengthened its relative position compared to China and Turkey. He attributed this to competitive pricing, supply chain resilience and sustained buyer confidence. However, he admitted that Bangladesh could not fully maintain its position by the end of the year.

He explained that although Bangladesh achieved positive overall growth for the year, the second half proved challenging and turned negative. Europe as a whole ended the year on a negative trend, as did China, but the downturn for Bangladesh was comparatively sharper than for China and some other competitors.

At the same time, prices declined significantly amid mounting price pressure in Europe. Despite this, Bangladesh managed to increase export volumes as EU buyers sought to meet rising demand while aggressively pushing down prices across all supplier countries.

Rubel further observed that China’s competitiveness allowed it to cut prices even more than Bangladesh and many other exporting nations to sustain growth.

He expressed optimism that with political stability returning to Bangladesh and the new government expected to play an effective role in enhancing competitiveness, the country could achieve stronger performance in the coming period, provided the global economic situation does not worsen significantly.

The ongoing price pressure has affected almost all exporting countries to varying degrees, except Vietnam and Turkey, which have been comparatively less impacted than others.