Bangladesh’s export sector is facing sharply higher ocean freight rates, largely driven by an escalating conflict between Iran and the US-Israel coalition that has choked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, according to industry insiders.

The commerce ministry will again write to the finance ministry to provide a 10 per cent cash incentive to garment exporters making goods out of man-made fibres to offset the pandemic’s fallouts and challenges of Bangladesh’s country status graduation.

Although cotton prices have declined sharply in the international futures markets, spinners and garment exporters in Bangladesh are not feeling elated owing to the dearer US dollar, the energy crisis and the fall in demand for finished goods.