By R. Hassan, TON Bangladesh

Bangladesh wants to gain a position in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with seven potential products, including food and beverage, attire, and leather, products which are now obtained from the global market for $35 billion annually. Clay, pharmaceutical, and plastics also have good demand in this gulf market.

Keeping this objective in mind, Dhaka wants to display its capacity through the first ever "Trade and Investment Fair-2022" in Riyadh to be held during 6-8 October this year. Bangladesh wants to get a foothold in this upcoming mega event

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) of Saudi Arabia has a strategy to discover new export markets by organizing a single-country expo is to decrease need on US and EU markets. Likewise, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is looking for new markets; as part of its endeavor, it aims to organize expos in China, Japan and Korea next year to enhance the country's shares in those destinations and reach the $100 billion apparel shipment in future.

According to the International Trade Centre (ITC) data, Saudi Arabia's imports stood at $152.34 billion in 2021. China is the KSA's largest export source, $31.07 billion, followed by the USA, UAE, India and Germany.

On the other hand, Bangladesh exported only $290 million in FY2022, of which attire shipments amount of $144million. Saudi Arabia is the country's 24th largest export partner out of 202 destinations, while the country is also the 26th largest destination for attire shipments.

However, EPB of Bangladesh data does not indicates the real amount of exports to KSA. A good amount of export is conducted informally through individual initiative as cargo or baggage, something that also carries a risk of non-payments for goods. The Bangladesh companies are planned to join the KSA expo to explore the untouched market potential in gulf.

Presently, Bangladeshi attire makers are trading via some Bangladeshi sellers based in KSA and most of them deceive their exporters in most cases. The attire makers have no option as they trade informally. This expo would open up a new window of channel to do business with Saudi retailers directly.

The expo potential will also explore the market in the region besides Saudi Arabia as it is also the epicenter of the Gulf countries. Saudi Arabia has been obtaining most of their apparel items from China, India, Turkey and other countries. The participation of Bangladesh is highly “significant” in this market being the second-largest apparel exporter globally.

A huge opportunity in this market is still untapped owing to an absence of government plan in the past. It will be a big market for other export items, such as home textile, agricultural products, leather goods, jute and ceramics.

The government inventiveness will help to clutch at least $5 -$6 billion market share. The Arabian traditional dresses are also high in value products. Bangladesh has good export growth in Asian countries as our substitute markets. To find new buyers and boost earnings from those potential markets, Bangladesh is also going to participate in an expo in Dubai in November this year.

The Bangladesh marketing Groups, are the largest agro-based products exporter and are having a decent business in gulf countries, mostly in Saudi Arabia, KSA, UAE, Qatar and Lebanon and other gulf countries through their own retailers. The gulf countries account for about 30% of their total exports, which also have double-digit development each year.

Despite good diplomatic relations with Gulf countries, Bangladesh is missing out on the $10 billion untapped attire market owing to a lack of inventiveness on parts of the government and the private sector. The Gulf Cooperation Council is a political and economic union of Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.

According to the International Trade Centre data, in 2020, the UAE obtained about $4.40 billion worth of apparel items from worldwide markets. The numbers for other countries there were: Saudi Arabia $3.01 billion, Kuwait $1.13 billion, Qatar $660 million, Oman $608 million and Bahrain $274 million.

Bangladesh now exports only $367.49 million worth of goods to this region, according to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data. However, the country can supply about 5% of the annual demand of the UAE, around 4% of Saudi Arabia's and less than 1% of the rest. Bangladeshi apparel exporters have a big potential in the Gulf and Middle East markets that have remained untapped for a long time owing to a lack of initiatives. Bangladesh is planning to explore those markets in future to boost the national economy.