Bangladesh could not use the cheap cotton from Uzbekistan over the last 10 years or so because of a restriction imposed by major clothing retailers due to use of child or forced labour by the Uzbek government in cotton harvesting.
Uzbekistan was the main source of cotton for Bangladesh before the ban was imposed in 2007, according to spinners and cotton importers.
Nearly 60 percent of the demand for cotton in Bangladesh used to be met by Uzbekistan, said Monsoor Ahmed, secretary of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), the platform for spinners and weavers.
The Uzbek and Turkmen governments force farmers to grow cotton and citizens to pick cotton, all under the threat of penalty such as loss of land, jobs, expulsion from school, and docked pay, according to Cotton Campaign, a global rights group.
The rights group started campaigning against the use of Uzbek cotton in 2007 and nearly 170 major retailers signed the pledge.
However, no Bangladeshi importer brings cotton from Uzbekistan now or from Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries like Turkmenistan because of use of child and forced labour in cotton harvesting. “The Uzbek cotton is relatively cheap and the quality is good,” Ahmed said, adding that Bangladesh could have saved at least 5 to 10 cents per pound (480 pounds equal one bale) had it imported cotton from the former Soviet nation.
In fiscal 2017-18, the country imported 7.1 million bales of cotton, meeting 97 percent of the demand of the country's more than 440 spinning mills.
This year, Bangladesh will import more cotton as the demand has been soaring with higher shipment of garment, industry people said. Moreover, the import time was also shorter due to geographical proximity in comparison to the African countries, Ahmed said.
“We do not use any fabrics or yarn produced from Uzbek cotton for making garment items for at least 10 years now,” said Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Since the discontinuation of cotton import from Uzbekistan, which is the fifth largest producer worldwide, Bangladesh has diversified its sources to India, Africa and the US.
Currently, Bangladesh imports 40 percent of its cotton requirement from India, another 40 percent from African countries and 7 percent from the US. The remaining 3 percent demand is met from domestic growers and other sources.
Even two years ago, Bangladesh used to import nearly 60 percent of its cotton from India because of shorter lead time, competitive prices and better quality.
“If Bangladesh depends heavily on only one source, like India, for such an important raw material the country may face trouble anytime for different reasons,” Ahmed said. Bangladesh is the largest cotton importer now after China stopped procuring cotton from abroad to support its growers and to finish its previous stock.
Bangladesh is the second largest garment supplier worldwide after China with its 6.5 percent market share.
Last fiscal year, the country produced 1.65 lakh bales of cotton, which can meet less than 3 percent of the annual demand of 10 million bales.
