DHAKA, (AFP) - Bangladesh garment manufacturers said Sunday they have targetted Japan as their next big market to offset a drop in orders from the United States and Europe caused by the global financial crisis.

Bangladesh exported 10.7 billion dollars’ worth of clothing in the 2007-8 financial year -- up around 17 percent from the previous year -- with more than 90 percent of products heading to the United States, Canada and western Europe.

But a leading garment-making group said the financial meltdown has already weighed on consumer spending in their traditional markets as year-on-year orders for September fell by around 10 percent.

“A massive black cloud has gathered over our heads,” said Fazlul Hoque, president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).

“Orders in September have fallen by 10 percent, and the indications are there that the industry will experience a sharp decline like the one we experienced immediately after 9/11 in 2001,” he said.

The garment trade is the backbone of Bangladesh’s manufacturing industry, accounting for 80 percent of total exports and 40 percent of industrial jobs.

The sector recorded its first negative growth in the 2001-2 fiscal year after the US economy slipped into recession following the attacks on the United States.

Hoque said they feared the United States and top European nations were heading for another long and painful recession, forcing a change in emphasis.

“Japan is the world’s fourth largest garment importer. Yet last year we exported 6.4 million dollars’ worth of apparel there, against Japan’s total import of around 9.3 billion dollars,” he said.

“We have to enter the Japanese market at any cost to survive the coming storm. We have identified that in four out of ten top Japanese apparel items, we have huge price advantages,” he added.

The group, whose members generate nearly 55 percent of the country’s entire clothing exports, has invited ten top Japanese buyers this year to inspect Bangladeshi factories.