The sudden rise in demand for yarn and fabrics is expected to boost Bangladesh’s cotton imports to 9 million bales for the first time this year, says Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA). Bangladesh imported 8.5 million bales of cotton in 2021 for over $3 billion. The country is expected to witness an import surge due to a rise in exports of Bangladesh-made garment items as global economies reopened.

From July to December last year, Bangladesh’s garment exports grew 28.02 per cent year-on-year to $19.90 billion. Of the total, earnings from knitwear exports surged 30.91 per cent year-on-year to $11.16 billion. Earnings from woven exports surged 24.50 per cent to $8.73 billion. Garment exports are expected to continue growing till June this year as exporters booked huge volume of work orders, says Faruque Hassan, President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)

Exporters expect a rush in cotton imports in March and April this year and a chaos in the port because of container congestion, adds Khokon. Currently local spinners meet 90 per cent demand for the raw materials for the knitwear sector but only 40 per cent of the woven sector. As a result, around 6 billion out of total 10 billion meters of fabrics are imported to meet the demands of the local woven garment sector, adds Khokon.