Bangladesh has overtaken China as world’s top cotton importer with a significantly expanding global market share to feed stronger demand from apparel makers. Such transition in the arena of import of raw materials for the garment industry is adjudged by the US Department of Agriculture. In the year ending July 31, 2016, the overall cotton import increased by 500,000 bales to 6.2 million bales, reinforcing Bangladesh’s position as the world’s largest importer of the item in 2015/16, said the USDA last week. Meanwhile, consumption has gone up by 300,000 bales, to 6.1 million bales, as market reports attest to growth of spinning, the USDA explained. For the 2016/17 year, the USDA has forecast imports to increase by 400,000 bales to 6.3 million, and use to 6.4 million. This raises Bangladesh’s share of global imports to just over 18 per cent–more than double of the volume seen five 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,” the USDA said in its ‘Cotton: World Markets and Trade’ report for October 2016. 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, it added. “Most of the spinning mills have expanded their production capacity through BMRE to make the industry viable and competitive both on local and global markets,” Monsoor Ahmed, secretary of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), told the FE Sunday. Currently, around 400 spinning units are in operation across the country. Mr. Ahmed also forecast that the rising trend in cotton import may continue in the coming years if the idle spindles go into production to cater the growing demand for textiles and clothing for local as well as export needs. Almost 25-35 per cent of spindles are not in operation for various reasons, according to Mr. Ahmed. On the other hand, China dropped behind Bangladesh in the 2015/16 year, importing 4.4 million bales of cotton compared to 8.3 million the year before. For the 2016/17 year, China is forecast to import 4.5 million bales. China is now shifting production to high-value items from lower ones to make their textile and clothing business viable in keeping with higher wages of their workers along with socioeconomic development, according to the BTMA secretary. “It’s an opportunity for the overall textile and clothing industry of Bangladesh,” he observed. Bangladesh’s $28 billion garment-manufacturing industry is the world’s second-largest after China’s, accounting for 80 per cent of the country’s annual shipments and employing some 40 per cent of its industrial workforce. “Our apparel makers should go higher-value products along with lower ones to increase their exports in terms of both value and volume,” said Mr. Ahmed, who has worked with the country’s textile and clothing sector since 1983.
