Yangon Corporation’s exports were less than US$2 million two decades ago. The company, owned by South Korean entrepreneur Sung Ki-hak, had only seven warehouses in Dhaka and Chattogram at the time.
The Yangon Corporation was building the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) on 2,492 acres of land at the time. Various companies started operations in KEPZ in 2011 after several hurdles. Since then their exports have been increasing rapidly.
Sung Ki-hak focused on high-priced clothing from the beginning. As a result, the company’s exports gradually increased. The South Korean company has reached the milestone of exporting RMG products worth USD 1 billion in FY 2022-23. This business group is the top textile exporter of Bangladesh.
OPEX Sinha Group was the top apparel exporter even two decades ago. However, the company has not been in the race for top exporters for some time now. Meanwhile, many companies with small export sizes two decades ago have now become big names. One of these companies has already crossed the export mark of US$ 500 million. Many companies are close to reaching this goal.
Local Ha-Mim Group is second in the list of top 10 apparel exporters. They earned a total of US$ 612.5 million from exports in the financial year 2022-23. Mandal Group and DBL Group are at third and fourth position respectively. Of these, the export earnings of Mandal Group were US$ 430 million. DBL Group exported apparel products worth US$428.6 million in the last financial year. Pacific Jeans Group, ranked fifth in the list of top exporters, has exported products worth US$ 406 million. Of the remaining five among the top 10 exporters, Standard Group exported apparel products worth USD 387.1 million in the last financial year, Pamal Group of Companies exported USD 385.9 million, AHK Group exported USD 312.6 million and Asian and DAF Group exported apparel products worth USD 309.3.