US welcomes Bangladesh’s lift of cotton fumigation on-arrival requirement

Business Desk :
US cotton can arrive to Bangladesh without fumigation at the port of entry, saving Bangladeshi importers millions of dollars and five days of waiting, effective from 16 May.
This action follows a November 2022 visit to the United States by a technical delegation from Bangladesh’s Ministry of Agriculture, which verified that the US cotton production and pest management strategies, followed by cotton processing techniques-ginning, lint cleaning, and bale compression-that remove any risk of boll weevil in US cotton, according to a press release on Monday (22 May).
Bangladesh is the second largest global importer of cotton, the seventh largest export market for US cotton, exceeding $475 million in export value in 2022, and has one of the largest ready-made garment (RMG) export industries in the world.
Fumigation is a method of killing pests, termites or any other harmful living organisms to prevent transfer of exotic organisms.