Reinforcing its position as the world’s largest importer, Bangladesh imported 6.2 million cotton bales in 2015-16. The US department of agriculture (USDA) has forecast Bangladesh’s imports to increase to 6.3 million bales in 2016-17. This raises Bangladesh’s share of global imports to over 18 per cent, which is more than double its share seen 5 years before. This large change in Bangladesh’s imports in turn impacts various cotton exporters, especially West African origins such as Benin and Burkina Faso, and Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan. Indeed, demand in Bangladesh for cotton of Uzbek origin has proven to be substantially stronger than was previously believed, resulting in a substantial upward revision to the 2015-16 Uzbek export estimate, the USDA said in its October 2016 report ‘Cotton: World Markets and Trade’. Meanwhile, consumption is raised a more moderate 300,000 bales, to 6.1 million, as market reports attest to growth of spinning. For 2016-17, consumption is expected to be 6.4 million. For 2016-17, the USDA has raised India’s cotton imports by 500,000 bales to 1.5 million bales on very strong early-season imports. For Indonesia too, estimated imports is now up by 100,000 bales to 2.9 million bales on higher domestic use. Among exporters, the US is expected to export 12 million bales in 2016-17. This figure is an increase of 500,000 bales over earlier estimate. This is due to stronger global import demand. Smaller crop will result in reduction of 500,000 bales to 2.9 million bales for Brazil. Significantly larger crop is likely to raise Australian exports by 800,000 bales to 4.2 million bales. Exports from Benin and Mali are pegged at 700,000 bales and 1.2 million bales, respectively.
