DHAKA: Country’s total goods export income in the first 11 months of the current fiscal year ending this month surged 12.56 percent year on year to 27.38 billion US. dollars thanks partly to Soccer World Cup 2014 in Brazil, an official said Sunday.

The Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) official said that the country earned a total of 27,376.57 million U.S. dollars from exports during July-May, compared to 24,321.90 million U.S. dollars in the same period a year earlier.

He said Bangladesh shipped goods worth 2,722.18 billion U.S. dollars in May, the 11th month of the current fiscal year 2013-14 (July 2013-June 2014), which was about 7.22 percent higher than the same month a year ago.

The export income, however, fell short of the target of 25.161 billion U.S. dollars for the July-May period by 0.21 percent, said the official who preferred to be unnamed.

Bangladesh set its export target in 2013-14 fiscal year at 30.50 billion U.S. dollars, including about 24.15 billion U.S. dollars from readymade garment products, the EPB data showed.

In the July-May period, according to the official, the country earned 22.178 billion U.S. dollars from garment exports with knitted items such as T-shirts growing about 16.28 percent and woven items such as jeans rising 13.46 percent.

Industry insiders said the overall ready-made garment export growth has been largely driven by demands for World Cup related merchandise.

Country’s garment makers said they have made millions of pieces of soccer jerseys, T-shirts, flags and hats for fans of all the World Cup's 32 teams and already sent their products to all across the world, reports Xinhua.

"We've received orders to make the World Cup related merchandise worth of nearly 1 billion US dollars," Mohammad Hatem, acting chief of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), earlier told Xinhua.

The BKMEA acting chief said they have far supplied some 500 million pieces of jerseys to buyers across the world.

BDST: 0912 HRS, JUN 16, 2014