Bangladesh eyes increasing local cotton production

Bangladesh, a country that imports bales of cotton to make garments for export, is now focusing on domestic production.

Executive Director of the Cotton Development Board Md Farid Uddin said they had already selected Barind areas of Rajshahi, Naogaon and Chapai Nawabganj, where other crops cannot be produced, for cotton cultivation.

“We can produce 1 million bales of cotton in 200,000 hectares of land,” he said, adding that this can save 10 percent to 15 percent import costs.

He was talking to bdnews24.com on the sidelines of the two-day world cotton summit in Dhaka which began on Wednesday.

Bangladesh is one of the largest cotton importers in the world, as the country produces one percent of the total requirement of cotton for making yarns and fabrics for clothes.

The country is the second largest ready-made garments exporter in the world.

Last year, Bangladesh imported 6.1 million bales of cotton, which was double the amount it imported in 2006. India and Uzbekistan are the main sources of those imports.

Global cotton buyers and sellers have convened in Dhaka at the world cotton summit, the organisers say, to understand the market better.

The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) is organising the summit jointly with the global event manager IBC Asia (S) Pte Ltd at a Dhaka Hotel.

The Executive Director Uddin said Bangladesh government’s policy was not to cultivate cotton on land where crop is grown.

“But we have places where we can promote cotton, like coastal areas where no other crops can be produced due to saline intrusion.”

“We are also targeting hilly areas as we have managed to utilise only 2 percent of that region so far. We also want to promote cotton production in the areas where tobacco is being cultivated.”

He said the government had taken up a project for research and expansion of cotton production.