Cotton yarn import to Bangladesh has increased by more than 25 per cent in the first seven months in 2016. Local spinners have termed this as a threat for the sub-sector of the country's primary textile industry. Sources in the industry feel that if the trend continues, it would badly affect the backward linkage industry that meets nearly 80 per cent requirement of the local knit sector.

From January to July this year, Bangladesh imported 207,644 tons of cotton yarn says Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA). In 2015, a total of 295,330 tons of cotton yarn was imported and the figure was 280,283 tons in 2014, BTMA’s data points out. A major portion of the yarn was imported from India. In recent times, yarn is also being imported from Indonesia as well.

Former BTMA president, Jahangir Alamin said this was alarming for the local spinning industry that has the capacity to meet the knit sector's requirements. But it is worth a thought that the country cannot produce a few grades of yarn used for producing high value added products, he added.

Local millers can meet 35 to 40 per cent of the woven sector's fabric requirement, and the rest is met through import, he went on to add. Around 430 local spinning mills supply more than 80 per cent of the raw material for the country's knitwear sector and 35 to 40 per cent of the woven sector, according to BTMA.