Bangladesh remains attracted to Indian cotton

06-Aug-2025 04:46 PM

Chittagong. Although relations between India and Bangladesh are not very good, Bangladeshi spinners and traders are still preferring to buy cotton from India as its import is considered profitable there for many reasons.

Being a neighboring country, transportation cost and time is less and importers can order it in small consignments. Exportable stock of cotton is available in India. Bangladesh usually imports large quantities of cotton and cotton yarn from India.

Data compiled by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association on the basis of Central Bank reports shows that during the financial year 2023-24, Bangladesh imported cotton worth $684 million from India, which was 19.40 percent of its total requirement.

In the financial year 2023-24, a total of $3.52 billion worth of cotton and yarn was imported there. Brazil remained at the second position among the top cotton supplier countries with a share of 16.11 percent in the Bangladesh market. Benin was at the third position with 12.03 percent and America was at the fourth position with 10.12 percent.

The data shows that during the year under review, Bangladesh imported cotton worth $568 million from Brazil, $424 million from Benin and $357 million from America.

Apart from this, 8 percent cotton was imported from Burkina Faso, 7.80 percent from Australia, 7.01 percent from Mali and 6.40 percent from Cameroon. Not only this, cotton worth $4 million from China and $2 million from Pakistan was also imported there.

America has announced to give conditional exemption in import duty to Bangladesh. It says that if Bangladesh imports at least 20 percent of its raw material including cotton from America, then its products will be exempted from import duty (tariff). It appears from this that the import of American cotton in Bangladesh may increase rapidly in the coming months.