For the first time ever, Bangladesh will dislodge China as the largest importer of Indian cotton and cotton products such as yarn and fabric in this fiscal, it has been reported. According to official data, India’s exports of cotton to China dropped to a total of just $416.14 million in the first half of the current fiscal while that to Bangladesh touched $613.16 million in the same period.

With demand from China remaining subdued, India’s exports of such items to the nation are unlikely to rebound anytime soon, it is said. As early as 2011-12, China’s purchases of cotton and cotton products from India were almost four times that of Bangladesh’s. As a matter of fact, cotton and cotton products remained India’s largest segment of export items to China for years accounting for 19-26 per cent of the country’s total supplies to the bigger neighbour until recently.

In the first half of this fiscal, though, such items made up for a meager 10.5 per cent of the country’s overall goods exports to China. The slowdown has been driven by China’s offloading of massive official stocks to consuming industries and a discernible withdrawal from labour-intensive sectors such as textiles and garments due to soaring costs, it is understood.