Bangladesh’s textile industry, the backbone of the country’s export economy, has just got a new digital tool that aims to reshape how its spinning mills source raw material. On August 27, 2026, AmeriBangla Corporation launched CottonPort at The Westin Dhaka, which it dubbed the nation’s first digital raw cotton market and a direct link between Bangladeshi manufacturers and American cotton farmers.
What CottonPort Does
CottonPort is a 24/7 online marketplace that allows Bangladeshi spinning mills to buy raw cotton directly, removing layers of middlemen that have historically driven up prices and slowed down procurement. The platform enables dynamic pricing, container-based buying and certified supply-chain traceability so buyers can track cotton from the farm to the finished shipment. Purchases are routed through a pre-positioned delivery system into warehouses at Chattogram Port, the principal sea gateway for imports and exports of Bangladesh.
The platform launched with an initial offering of 82 tons of raw cotton sourced directly from Virginia in the United States, the first shipment to move through the new system.
Why AmeriBangla Created a Direct Line To U.S. Farmers
AmeriBangla CEO Aswar Rahman presented CottonPort as a “merchant barrier-free” marketplace designed to break up established monopolies in cotton procurement and provide Bangladeshi buyers with increased bargaining power. Rahman said more than 30 spinning mill owners have already expressed interest to source US cotton directly through the platform.
He said the establishment of direct purchasing relationships between Bangladeshi manufacturers and US farmers would cement bilateral ties and pave the way for significant growth in Bangladesh’s exports to the US market in coming years.
The Larger Trade Picture
The launch is part of a larger initiative by AmeriBangla Corporation to amplify the commercial relationship between the US and Bangladesh. The company aims to boost bilateral trade between the two countries to US$100 billion by 2045 from an estimated US$10 billion, driven by commodity exports, machinery trade and capital partnerships.
That ambition is centred on cotton, the vital input for Bangladesh’s enormous ready-made garment sector that supplies apparel brands worldwide. Company officials say CottonPort will help boost Bangladeshi apparel exports to the US, where changing tariff conditions have made cost-efficient, traceable sourcing more important for manufacturers trying to stay competitive.
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A Scalable Rollout Method
CottonPort is intentionally small. The platform plans to handle up to 10 containers of cotton a month during its trial phase in 2026. If the model works, AmeriBangla is looking to scale that up dramatically to 1,600 containers a month by 2028, a jump that would be a sizable share of Bangladesh’s raw cotton import volume passing through a single digital channel.
Bangladesh’s textile mills import most of the raw cotton they need. Brazil and India have traditionally supplied the largest share of the market, with the United States a smaller share. If the trial phase is successful and mills keep signing up, a platform designed to direct more of that trade to American growers could dramatically change where Bangladesh gets its cotton from.
What It Means For The Industry
The platform promises direct farmer-to-mill purchases, transparent pricing and verified supply chains, addressing a string of pain points for an industry that runs on tight margins and is heavily dependent on reliable, traceable raw material. Whether CottonPort can actually deliver on its 2028 scale-up target will depend on how quickly Bangladeshi mills adapt to buying cotton this way, and how the broader US-Bangladesh trade relationship evolves in the years ahead.
