Bangladesh will soon explore other countries for import of cotton to decrease its dependence on India. The decision has been taken in view of a sudden ban imposed by India on cotton exports earlier this month.

A nine-member delegation headed by GM Quader, Minister of Commerce, will be heading to Uzbekistan and few other cotton producing countries in April to discuss import of cotton from these countries.

India is the second-largest cotton exporter having a global market share of 20 percent. In April 2010 too, it had imposed a similar ban on cotton exports, which was later withdrawn the same year.

“Bangladesh is not a cotton growing country. We import 20-25 percent our cotton requirement from India, and the rest comes from China and other countries,” an official from the Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce told fibre2fashion.

“It was the easiest to get cotton from India as it is our negihbour. However, with the Indian Government banning export of cotton, we need to look for alternative sources of procuring cotton,” the official said.

“Some of the countries that we are exploring for sourcing cotton are Egypt, China, USA, Uzbekistan and other CIS countries,” he reveals.

When queried about the use of child labour in cotton picking in Uzbekistan, the official said, “The issue of child labour can be overcome, but the ban cannot.”

“We have been importing Uzbekistan cotton for the past so many years and we have already mentioned our current requirements to them,” the official added.