Bangladesh's Four Month Export Haul Hits $17 Billion, Jute and Chemicals Outpace Garments

Bangladesh's merchandise exports reached $17.04 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, July through October, Bangladesh Bank said in a November 1 release, up 6 percent, or about $960 million, from $16.08 billion in the same stretch of FY2025-26. Readymade garments still carry most of the total, but the fastest growth this year is coming from smaller sectors that rarely make the headlines, jute, leather and chemicals among them.

• Jul-Oct FY27 exports hit $17.04 billion, up 6 percent year on year, Bangladesh Bank data shows.
• Knitwear and woven garments together still account for nearly 80 percent of exports, but jute (up 23.8 percent), chemicals (up 27.3 percent) and leather (up 12.7 percent) are growing far faster.
• October alone brought in roughly $3.95 billion, calculated from the gap between the four-month and first-quarter releases, a pace only slightly ahead of a year earlier.
• Agricultural products, frozen and live fish, and cotton and cotton goods all shrank during the period, bucking the overall trend.

The headline number, and what sits beneath it

Four months into FY2026-27, Bangladesh's export engine is growing, just not dramatically. The $17.04 billion total compares with $16.08 billion a year earlier, a gain of roughly $960 million. Garments remain the backbone: knitwear exports reached $7.71 billion, up 7 percent, while woven garments brought in $6 billion, up 4.8 percent. Combined, the two garment categories made up close to 80 percent of total exports and accounted for about 81 percent of the entire increase, meaning that even with other sectors growing faster in percentage terms, garments are still doing most of the heavy lifting in dollar terms.

Sector	Jul-Oct FY27 value	Year on year growth
Knitwear	$7.71 billion	+7.0%
Woven garments	$6.00 billion	+4.8%
Leather and leather goods	$464 million	+12.7%
Jute and jute goods	$383 million	+23.8%
Chemical products	$157 million	+27.3%

The sectors growing fastest are still small

Percentage growth tells a different story than dollar growth, and that gap is the real story in this data. Chemical products grew 27.3 percent but are worth only $157 million over four months, a rounding error next to garments. Jute, long treated as a legacy sector, is up 23.8 percent to $383 million, while leather climbed 12.7 percent to $464 million. Home textiles rose 7.4 percent and footwear 9.7 percent. None of these categories will replace garments as Bangladesh's export anchor anytime soon, but together they represent the diversification policymakers have been pushing for years, now showing up, modestly, in the numbers.

What's shrinking

Not every sector is moving the same direction. Agricultural products fell 13.5 percent, frozen and live fish dropped 11 percent, and cotton and cotton products slid 10 percent over the four-month period. These declines are small in dollar terms relative to garments, but they matter for the specific exporters and farming communities involved, and they are a reminder that export growth at the national level can mask real contraction in individual industries.

Where the dollars are coming from

Export Promotion Bureau data for the first quarter of FY27 (July-September) shows the United States holding its position as Bangladesh's largest single export market, at $2.591 billion, up 11.34 percent from $2.327 billion a year earlier. The United Kingdom followed at $1.370 billion and Germany at $1.218 billion. The standout mover was Turkey, where exports more than doubled, up 100.11 percent to $210.54 million from $105.21 million, a small base but a striking growth rate that exporters will be watching to see if it holds.

"The latest export performance reflects the resilience of Bangladesh's export sector," a senior Export Promotion Bureau official said, adding that the agency remains focused on diversification, market expansion and product upgrading.

What it means for you

For garment factory owners and suppliers, the message is steady rather than spectacular growth, enough to keep lines running but not enough to erase the margin pressure many have described over the past year. For businesses in jute, leather, chemicals or light engineering, the growth rates in this data offer a case for pursuing new buyers and markets, since demand in these categories appears to be expanding faster than in the traditional garment trade. For everyday readers, steady export earnings support the taka and the broader foreign exchange position that these calculators and the central bank track closely, and anyone sending or receiving international payments tied to trade can check current rates on the currency converter.

What comes next

October's pace, estimated at roughly $3.95 billion based on the gap between the four-month and first-quarter figures, suggests growth is continuing but not accelerating sharply month to month. With Bangladesh now operating under a three-year deferment before its LDC graduation takes effect, policymakers and trade bodies are watching whether sectors like jute, leather and chemicals can keep compounding fast enough to meaningfully shift the country's export mix before preferential market access changes. The next major data point will be November's figures, due in early December, which will show whether the current four-month trend holds through the usual pre-winter order cycle.