So far China was the largest importer of raw materials including cotton, however, estimates suggest that Bangladesh may soon overtake it the world’s biggest cotton importer in the current crop season. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in year ending July 31, Bangladesh will import a record 5.75 million bales of the fibre, up 6.5 per cent from a year earlier.
China is projected to import 5.5 million bales, the lowest since 2003 (one bale weighs 480 pounds, or 218 kilograms). Bangladesh’s share of the global cotton-export market doubled from 1995 to 2012, mostly because of the strong performance of the ready-made garments sector, the World Bank said in an October report. Since 2009, the nation has been the world’s second-largest exporter of clothing, after China.
The drop in Chinese imports is attributed to reasons like rising wages, falling yuan and it has more-than-ample stockpiles: most of the 104.4 million bales of global stockpiles predicted by the USDA the current crop year are in China. Also, unlike Bangladesh and several other Asian nations, China has curbs on imports, in the form of quotas and tariffs. Along with Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia are also gaining market share. While cotton use by Bangladeshi mills is forecast to rise by 10 per cent in 2015/16, it will jump by 20 per cent in Vietnam, the International Cotton Advisory Committee, or ICAC, said on December 1, 2015.
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