Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) President Tapan Chowdhury Wednesday urged the government to ensure uninterrupted cotton and gas supply for the spinners to support export-oriented knit and woven garments factories. “Bangladesh is almost cent percent dependent on imported cotton. Such complete dependence on imported cotton will continue to persist because of our obvious limitations in growing cotton locally… but the government must look into the matter and ensure smooth cotton supply,” he said. He was speaking at a press conference after inauguration of a two-day cotton summit. State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam opened the two-day summit on Wednesday at a city hotel. Global cotton buyers and sellers took part in the world cotton summit to better understand the market. Tapan Chowdhury said the summit would provide “good opportunity” to the spinners and cotton traders to share their knowledge, ideas and requirements with the foreign partners and suppliers. He also said besides non-smooth supply of cotton, poor gas connection is a big challenge for the industry. “Many factories want to expand their business but they cannot due to unavailability of new gas connections,” he said. Mr Chowdhury said the conference would help better understand each other, he said. The BTMA is organising the summit jointly with the global event manager IBC Asia (S) Pte Ltd at a Dhaka Hotel. Mr Chowdhury said over 150 delegates from 10 countries are participating in the summit. A number of importers told this correspondent on the sidelines that sourcing from foreign origins was not smooth. Frequent fluctuations in cotton import price pose serious risks and challenges for the country’s spinning mills in maintaining their programmed procurement policies, they said. They said that sometimes the suppliers put them in an adverse position by withholding the supply on various pleas. Variations in the qualities of supplied cotton are also observed in some cases along with complaint regarding short quantity in the consignment, according to importers. The millers said sometimes some sourcing countries put restriction or total embargo on export of cotton, which put millers in a very difficult position to cope with. They also said lack of understanding between the importers and suppliers is blamed for creating problems in maintaining trade relations. Last year, Bangladesh imported 6.1 million bales of cotton, which was double the amount it imported in 2006. India and Uzbekistan are the main sources of those imports. Of the total import, half of the cotton comes from India. Bangladesh’s cotton production prospects, China’s decrease of imports, and Africa opportunities are some of the issues to be discussed in the summit. Bangladesh is one of the largest cotton importers in the world, as the country produces one per cent of the total requirement of cotton for making yarns and fabrics for clothes. Bangladesh is the second largest clothes exporter in the world. Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon was present at the press briefing.
