Pakistan likely to see a fall in cotton consumption to 2.2 million tons, a decline by 12 percent this year, by consuming 2.2 million tons of cotton it would be exporting around $13 billion of textile products. This was revealed in the monthly cotton update by the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC).

While Bangladesh and Vietnam with the same combined consumption on the strength of 22 percent and 13 percent increase in their cotton use would generate exports of over $54 billion. This means value addition in these two non-cotton producing countries is over four times higher. Both Bangladesh and Vietnam are among the low value-added textile product exporters.

China, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Tunisia add much more value to their textiles.

The ongoing drop in polyester prices causes reduction in the share of cotton in the global market, particularly in China where polyester has been favoured over cotton in the recent season, the ICAC said.

The cotton consumption in China is forecast to go down five percent to 7.1 million tons in 2015/16, though it still remains the world’s largest consumer of cotton

The statement also said that when cotton prices dropped at the start of 2014/15, the gap between international cotton prices, as represented by the Cotlook A Index, and polyester prices in China, which accounts for 72 percent of the world’s polyester production, narrowed significantly and greatly improved the competitiveness of cotton.

However, this only lasted for a few months, as polyester prices continued to drop, while cotton prices stabilised.

In 2015/16, the gap continued to widen with polyester prices dropping from 52 cents per lb in August 2015 to 43 cents per lb in January 2016, averaging 48 cents per lb during the first half of 2015/16, the ICAC said.