Cotton import for the fiscal year 2021-22 import has been roughly 8.2 million bales compared with the previously estimated 8.3 million bales for the year, a report published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) foreign agricultural service revealed.
Due to the high global cotton prices, local spinning mills will consume more out of stocks, the report said.
Bangladesh had imported 8.75 million bales of cotton last year.
China is the world's biggest cotton importer followed by Bangladesh, and both nations are key customers of top shippers of the US.
According to the Cotton Council International (CCI) delegation's data revealed in November, in FY21 the country imported around 1.15 million bales, which accounted for around 14% of its total imports.
The local apparel industry is heavily reliant on cotton.
After the fallout from Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Bangladesh's readymade garments exports saw year-on-year growth of 28% to $28.5 billion in 10 months of 2021.
As of September, yarn imports have increased while fabric imports decreased as compared to the previous year.
The Cotton Development Board said in its latest annual report that 450 spinning mills have an annual cotton fibre requirement of 8 million bales, while Bangladesh can currently meet hardly 3-4% of that need.
It now aims to meet at least 10-15% of the country’s cotton fibre needs from growing high yielding cotton varieties and expanding cotton acreage from less than 50,000 hectares to 100,000 hectares by 2030.