Bangladesh will import Uzbek cotton directly

The Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Faruk Khan will visit Uzbekistan in early November 2010 and the two sides will discuss the issue of direct Uzbek cotton imports.

Bangladesh currently imports 1.6 million bales of cotton each year from Uzbekistan, accounting for 40% of Bangladesh’s total cotton imports, but the overwhelming majority of them are indirectly purchased through European traders through re-export trades, so the government of Bangladesh plans to import directly from Uzbekistan. In order to reduce the price of cotton in Bangladesh, the price of cotton will continue to increase.

At present, the price of cotton in Bangladesh is between 5 and 5.5 US dollars per kilogram, which is a dollar increase over the cotton price in 2009.