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Philippines:GTEB sees 5% growth in garment & textile exports this year |
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2004-10-26
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With strong demand in the US and European markets for branded apparel, the country’s garment and textile exports this year is projected to post a modest 5 percent growth after all.
Garments and Textile Export Board, Executive Director Serafin Juliano said in an interview that a modest growth is statistically possible for local garments and textile exporters this year from an original flat-growth projection set earlier this year.
“We would like to be conservative and we would like to be prudent with our forecast, but statistically we are projecting a 5 -percent growth this year,” Juliano stressed.
The dollar earnings of local garments and textile exporters plunged to its lowest level in eight years after it retreated 3.65 percent to $2.73 billion last year from $2.83 billion in 2002.
Last year’s dollar earnings of the industry were its lowest since garments and textile shipments reached $2.75 billion in 1996. The industry’s earnings have been posting negative growth since 2000, when shipments amounted to a record level of $3.2 billion.
Juliano said that the dollar earnings of the sector retreated by 1.45 percent to $2.12 billion from January to September, compared to $2.15 billion in the same period last year. This came after shipments to quota countries declined by 1.04 percent to $1.89 billion from $1.91 billion, while exports to non quota countries fell by 4.6 percent to $235.81 million from $247.18 million.
For September 2004, he pointed out that shipments went up by 5.44 percent to $237.91 million from $225.62 million in the same month last year. Exports to quota countries, such as the US and Europe, increased by 8.46 percent to $213.29 million, while shipments to non quota countries dropped 15 percent to $24.62 million.
The GTEB executive said the government is confident that shipments of local garments and textile exporters would pick up in the last quarter of the year due to the holiday season and advance orders because of the lifting of the quotas imposed on imports starting next year.
“Things are going to change dramatically this year because the quota would be lifted starting next year. The December figure may be higher due to advance orders for January and February,” said Juliano.
In fact, he explained that shipments of Philippine-made garments and textile already surged by 26.93 percent to $107.32 million in the first two weeks of October from $84.55 million in the same period last year. This occurred after exports to quota countries surged by 32 percent to $95.22 million, while shipments to non quota countries declined by 2.22 percent to $12.1 million.
Juliano said the country’s continuing development of its customer base of branded products enables local garments exports to maximize increased consumer purchase of apparel in quota countries, particularly the US, where sales of discount retailers and clothing stores grew by 9 percent, while department stores loss fell by 1.4 percent.
For next year, Juliano said the GTEB is sticking to the 15-percent growth target set under the “Garment Export Industry Transformation Package.”
The program intends to boost the competitiveness of local garments and textile exporters in the light of the abolition of the export quota system under the WTO, wherein export earnings is expected to reach $4 billion by next year.
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