An ongoing conflict in Sudan will not have any major impact on Bangladesh’s import of cotton from the country as it accounts for a very small part of the import and there are some alternative African sources for local importers, spinners and millers.
Dozens have been killed in armed clashes in the Sudanese capital Khartoum following months of tension between the military and the powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces.
Behind the tensions is a disagreement over the integration of the paramilitary group into the armed forces – a key condition of a transition agreement that has never been signed but has been adhered to by both sides since 2021.
Some African countries, especially those in the west like Benin, Lesotho, Chad and Sudan, are important sources of cotton for traders in Bangladesh.
This is due to a long time ban on the use of their cotton by western clothing retailers and brands under the excuse of using child labour in the cotton industry.
Moreover, members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), especially Uzbekistan, have already established their own spinning mills for using the cotton as climate change allowed the establishment of spinning mills across the country.
Because the melting of ice helped use cotton in the mills as ice does not prevail for a long time in the CIS countries because of climate change.
Following such developments, local spinners, traders, importers and millers started sourcing cotton from African countries.
The African countries provided 37.3 per cent of the total cotton required in fiscal year 2019-20, according to data from the Bangladesh Cotton Mills Association (BTMA).
Now, the percentage has gone up to more than 40 per cent, said Monsoor Ahmed, additional director and chief executive officer of the BTMA.
Of the total import of cotton from African countries, Sudan may be a source for 5 per cent to 6 per cent, he said.
Since other sources like Benin and other West African nations are also sending cotton to Bangladesh, the local traders will not face any crisis, he added.
“So, the ongoing conflict in Sudan will not have any impact on the sourcing of cotton,” said Monsoor.
The local cotton traders, spinners, millers and importers started diversifying from India in sourcing their cotton since 2008 as India stopped shipments of cotton several times without prior notice.
As a result, local traders reduced their overdependence on Indian cotton and started sourcing from African countries, the US, Brazil, Australia and Argentina, Monsoor added.
The US is eventually turning into another major cotton sourcing country for Bangladesh because of its good quality and for Bangladesh lifting a decades-old provision of double fumigation of US cotton in March this year.
In fiscal year 2019-20, the share of cotton imported from African countries stood at 37.06 per cent, India 26 per cent, CIS 11.35 per cent, Australia 4.65 per cent, US 11.14 per cent and others 9.65 per cent, the BTMA said.
Annually, Bangladesh imports nearly nine million bales of cotton (one bale equals to 282 kilogrammes) at a cost of nearly $3 billion for use in nearly 500 spinning mills.
The local production of cotton can meet less than 1 per cent of the annual demand.
Chandan Lodh, managing director of Ustar Fibre, a local cotton trader, said he imports nearly 10,000 tonnes of cotton from Sudan in a year whereas around seven lakh tonnes in total come from around the world, especially other African countries.
So, the ongoing crisis in Sudan may not have any major impact on the sourcing of cotton for his company, Lodh said.
However, the African countries are turning into a major sourcing destination for his company as he reduced dependence on India and other CIS nations.
The CIS countries have been setting up their own spinning mills and they are using their own cotton, for which these countries cannot export cotton to other countries like earlier, he added.
Mostofa Kamal, senior general manager of Noman Group, which accounts for 6.30 per cent of the country’s total cotton import, said the Sudanese crisis would not have any impact on the local cotton sourcing, textile and garment sectors.
Sudan is still a small source nation for Bangladesh. However, Benin, Mali and some other African nations are major sources for cotton for Bangladesh as the local traders import bulk quantities from those countries, he added.
