African countries can be a major source of cotton used as raw materials in the Bangladesh’s garment industry, said Finance Minister AMA Muhith.

He said the African cotton is “of good quality and easy for import.”

Bangladesh is currently the second largest cotton importer in the world sourcing mostly from India and China.

“The cotton that we import from India and China is not original. It is very difficult to get original cottong from these countries. African countries can be good alternative for cotton import,” finance minister said.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the African-Asian Cotton B2B Meeting at The Westin Hotel, Dhaka on Sunday.

International Islamic Trade Financing Corporation (ITFC) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group organised the meeting.

ITFC is financing and supervising a cotton development project in West Africa, titled “Cotton Development and Partnership Programme.”

The meeting aimed to improve business to business relations between African and Bangladeshi importers.

“Our economy is driven by garment industry which will continue to dominate the economy for the next 20 to 25 years,” Muhith said.

“Bangladesh’s garment industry mostly depends on imported cotton for raw materials. If Africa produces more cotton, it will be helpful for Bangladesh,” he said.

African Cotton Association President Baba Berthe, Bangladesh Cotton Association President Mohammad Shahidullah and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association Vice President Mohammad Ali Khokon also spoke at the function.

Mohammad Shahidullah said: “African countries produce high quality cotton. Import of African is also more cost-effective compared to other countries.”

He said: “African cotton industry is purely export-oriented while India and China have their own demands of cotton. As they have their own demands, importing cotton from India and China is sometimes challenging,” he said.

Mohammad Ali Khokon said the cotton import increased to 7.087m bales from 4.876m bales in the last five years with Africa making increasing contribution to the global cotton supply. He said Bangladesh has now a dominant position in cotton for 425 spinning mills.

According to BTMA data, Bangladeshi mills are sourcing cotton from countries like India, the United States and Africa. Currently, Bangladesh sources around 20.88% of its total cotton demand from African countries.