The sorry state of the Nepali ready-made garment exports to the United States continued with a decline of about 6 percent in 2006, compared to last year, according to a leading newspaper, The Himalayan Times report on Thursday.

Garment Association of Nepal (GAN) said in a statement, this fall in exports to the U.S., the single largest market of Nepali garment and apparel products that absorbs about 85 percent of the total exports, is somewhat of a relief compared to the whopping decline of over 41 percent in 2005 and 30 percent in 2004.

According to the daily, garment exports to the U.S. suffered almost throughout the year in 2006, except for a brief progress in the months of February, May and June.

Garment and apparel products exported to the United States in 2006 were valued over 47.77 million U.S. dollars in 2006, whereas in 2005, garment products worth over 50.72 million dollars were exported to the U.S., the figures provided by the GAN said.

The fall in export indicates a difficult time ahead for Nepali garment manufacturers and exporters as well, as markets have been opened for all competitors without quota restrictions, an exporter told the daily.

He underscored the need for enhancing competitive strength of Nepali products to compete with big suppliers from India and China and other fervent players such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Since the United States alone absorbs more than 85 percent of the total garment exports, single market concentration is also blamed for such a plummet.

A recent United Nations report on garment and textile exports has suggested that Nepal urgently needs to diversify its exportable products as well as markets.

Besides building up competitive strength, diversification of markets and products has remained a major challenge for Nepali apparel industries. A gradual increment in exports to the EU and Canada has lit a ray of hope for garment manufacturers and exporters.

Source: Xinhua