Two-day global cotton summit begins in Dhaka

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

State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam opened the two-day summit on Wednesday.
 
He said the summit would provide “good opportunity” to the spinners and cotton traders to share their “knowledge, ideas and requirements with the foreign partners and suppliers”.
 
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.
 
Bangladesh is the second largest clothes 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.
 
But importers say they sometimes face difficulties when the sourcing countries put restrictions or total embargo on exports.
 
Lack of understanding between the importers and suppliers is also blamed for creating problems in maintaining trade relations.
 
President of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Tapan Chowdhury at a press briefing after the inauguration said this summit would “build good relations between buyers and sellers, which will eventually help to address our problems.”
 
The conference would help better understand each other, he said.
 
The BTMA is organising the summit jointly with the global event manager IBC Asia (S) Pte Ltd at a Dhaka Hotel.
 
Chowdhury said over 150 delegates from 10 countries are participating in the summit.
 
Bangladesh’s cotton production prospects, China’s decrease of imports, and Africa opportunities are some of the issues be discussed in the summit.