The comparison buyers actually need is about constraints, not rankings
Ask which of these three countries is best for making clothing and the question has no answer, because “best” depends entirely on what you are making, how many, and where you are selling it. Ask which country’s constraints tolerate your order, and there is a real answer.
The scale figures make the first point immediately. Bangladesh’s garment exports reached $45.3 billion in FY2024-25 [4]. Pakistan’s textile and apparel exports were $17.93 billion in FY2025-26 [1]. China exported $146.01 billion of textiles and apparel in the first half of 2026 alone [7] — a half-year roughly eight times Pakistan’s full year.
Those numbers are not like-for-like, and treating them as such is the first mistake. But they establish the shape of the market: Bangladesh is the specialist in garments at scale, China is the generalist with unmatched breadth, and Pakistan is the cotton-vertical specialist in the middle.
Where each country is structurally strong
Bangladesh is the largest garment exporter of the three, with roughly 84% of national export earnings coming from ready-made garments [4]. That concentration is a strength — deep buyer relationships, mature compliance infrastructure, competitive basic knitwear and wovens — and a vulnerability. The same data set shows RMG exports slipping 0.63% to $19.34 billion in the first half of 2026, with knitwear down 1.80% [5], and garment exports to the United States falling 8.08% in the first five months of 2026 [6]. Gas and power shortages are cited as a live production constraint.
China competes on breadth and speed rather than on price. A half-year textile and apparel export figure of $146.01 billion, up 1.4%, comes from the only one of the three with deep capability across man-made fibres, technical textiles, bonding, lamination and complex construction [7]. On a plain cotton tee China is rarely the cheap answer. On a performance garment it is frequently the only sensible one.
Pakistan is the narrowest of the three and clearest about what it is: vertical cotton production from spinning through weaving, processing and stitching, often inside a single company. The apparel end is where the growth is — wearing apparel output expanded 22.03% year on year in July 2026 while the textile category as a whole contracted 3.09% [3] — which tells you where value is being added and where capacity is under-loaded. It is the right answer for cotton-heavy products at mid-size quantities, and the wrong answer for man-made fibres at very large scale.
The five factors that decide an order
The second table above compares the factors that actually change an order’s outcome. Three deserve comment.
Cost structure is not a differentiator, and buyers keep treating it as one. Materials plus direct labour run at 55–65% of FOB price consistently across producing countries [9], and fabric is the largest single element in all of them [10]. The difference between countries therefore lives in the remaining minority: overhead, efficiency, energy and margin. That does not make country choice unimportant. It makes it a smaller lever than most buyers assume, and a much smaller lever than the specification.
Energy is the sharpest live difference. Pakistan’s industrial tariff sits around US¢12.90 per kWh [13], a genuine competitive disadvantage against regional peers. Bangladesh’s constraint is physical rather than priced: gas and power shortages interrupting production through 2026 [5]. China’s is neither. For any product with heavy processing — dyeing, washing, finishing — this is a cost line and a delivery-risk line simultaneously, and it is the kind of constraint that decides an order in a way unit price does not.
Labour floors are lower than buyers assume in both South Asian markets and they are not the differentiator either. Pakistan’s notified minimum for unskilled workers in Punjab and Sindh is PKR 40,000 per month [14] and Bangladesh’s garment minimum is BDT 12,500 per month, set in December 2023 and effective from January 2024 [8]. Both are local-currency figures and both are statutory floors rather than actual wage bills. Given that labour is a minority share of FOB, a difference here moves the landed cost by less than a specification change does.
The decision, made plain
The third table matches situations to countries. The pattern behind it is consistent:
- Mid-size orders in cotton are Pakistan’s natural territory, because the vertical integration suits the product and its capacity is under-loaded relative to Bangladesh.
- Large basic programmes belong in Bangladesh, where scale is the advantage.
- Technical and complex products belong in China, where the capability exists and the price premium is buying something real.
- Anything below every factory’s minimum belongs in the small-batch sector, in whichever country, and should be entered knowing that is what it is.
What to check before you commit
- State the period on every figure you use. These numbers have dates, and a comparison built on an undated export total is a comparison built on nothing.
- Check the current duty rate, for whichever destination you are selling into. All three countries’ positions into the US have moved repeatedly since 2025 [11].
- Match the constraint profile first, then negotiate. An eight-week window and a fourth-quarter order are decided by loading and reliability, not by $0.30 per unit.
- Do not treat a country as a supplier. The country sets the constraints; the factory either works within them or does not. Every sourcing outcome on this page is settled at the factory, not at the border.
Worked examples
Worked example: why the country saves less than buyers expect
Take a basic cotton tee at 5,000 pieces. Materials plus direct labour are 55–65% of FOB price in every one of these countries, and fabric is the largest single element in all three. That means the difference between countries lives in the remaining minority — factory overhead, margin, energy, and the efficiency of the operation. A country that is 10% cheaper overall on a $4.00 FOB price saves $0.40. Changing the fabric from 180gsm to 240gsm, or adding a fourth print colour, moves the price further than the country choice does. Neither is a reason to ignore the country. It is a reason to stop treating the country as the main variable, because specification is where the money is and it is the one thing you control without asking anyone.
Worked example: a constraint profile, not a price, choosing the country
A buyer needs 12,000 cotton knit tees for a summer launch in eight weeks. On price alone, Bangladesh is the natural answer — the largest basic-knitwear base of the three. On the constraint profile, the eight-week window and the fourth-quarter loading picture decide it: Bangladesh was reporting gas and power disruption through 2026 while its US garment exports were already contracting 8.08% in the first five months of the year, which says the base is under strain even as it competes on price. Pakistan can often take 12,000 pieces on a shorter timeline because its knitwear capacity is structurally under-loaded, and the buyer pays a little more per unit for a delivery date that holds. The lesson generalises: match the order to the constraint profile, then negotiate the price.