DHAKA: As per the latest statistics of Export Promotion Bureau, the country has shipped bicycles worth of US$ 44.51million during the July to January period of the fiscal year 2016-17.
This figure is 11.81 percent less than what the country earned from bike export during the same period of last fiscal- the EPB figure shows. In fact, the total shipment value of bicycles during the first seven months of 2015-16 stood at $50.47 million, reaching $99.15 million at the end of last fiscal year.
At the same time, this amount has also fallen short of the country’s strategic export target for bicycles for the first seven months of this year.
The country originally targeted to earn US$ 56.87 million during the July to January period during the ongoing fiscal while also aiming to earn US$ 100 million during the whole fiscal year.
When asked about the reason for this decline, industry insiders have blamed it on a ‘longer than usual’ European winter and a weak British pound.
“As a result, a big chunk of our export orders which were supposed to be shipped in October or November last year have to be shifted to January or February”, he added.
According to various reports, freezing temperature and snowfalls during the first few weeks of January this year caused several deaths and ‘travel chaos’ across the European continent as the temperature reached minus 30 degree Celsius in some places.
Bangladesh started exporting bicycle back in the late 90s and it currently exports bicycles to around 30 countries across the globe.
European Union is however the biggest destination of Bangladeshi bicycle with around 80 percent of the country’s bike shipments going to EU nations. According to BIKE Europe, Bangladesh was actually the fifth largest bike supplying country of Europe back in 2012.
Apart from weather, major players are also blaming the fall in the price of British Pound in the aftermath of Brexit as a case for waning bike export.
British Pound which stood at US$ 1.46 just before the day of Brexit referendum in June last year, has faced a declining trend since the aforementioned referendum and at one point in mid-January, dropped even lower than US$ 1.20 against US Dollar.
When EU export data are segregated, United Kingdom turns out to be Bangladesh’s largest market for bicycles. Out of around US$ 99.14 million worth of bicycles that was exported from Bangladesh back in 2015-16, around 46 percent was shipped to Britain.
Sector leaders also observed that bicycle export from the country has been sluggish since mid-2015 when a big factory of Mehgna Group- one of the country’s biggest bicycle exporters caught fire.
