[🇧🇩] Agro exports from Bangladesh

[Bilal9]

Date of Event: Jun 4, 2025

Source : https://pkdefense.com/ Short Summary: Bangladesh Agricultural export thread

@Bilal9

 

[Bilal9]

@Bilal9

I mean whiskey tango foxtrot.

Godi Media, Palkee Sharma and her incessant attacks.

Are they so bored that they have to pick at every little event in Bangladesh??

We have a huge trade deficit with China and it was decided that we should balance it by exporting mangoes which would otherwise spoil anyway, in the Bangladesh heat.

Exporting agro products "under cold chain" logistics is relatively new/unimproved in Bangladesh, as is agro processing, just like rest of South Asia. We'd like to improve success in this sector to the point where Thai, Vietnamese and Filipinos have it. And reduce spoilage and wastage.

China is a huge market and mangoes there don't taste the same like ours, so why not.

"...Mangoes are entering the Chinese market duty-free under a new trade facilitation framework, helping address the bilateral trade imbalance and boosting agricultural exports."

“This is just the beginning. We are working to open up new markets in Japan and Europe for Bangladeshi agricultural products,” (Prof. Muhammad Yunus) said at the Air Shipment Departure Ceremony for the consignment bound for Changsha, Hunan Province."

https://outlookbangla.com/2025/05/28/mango-export-to-china-begins-key-outcome-of-cas-beijing-visit-bashir/

All Indian govt. has done for the last 50 years is block Bangladeshi exports to India using every "fikir" known to them (including non-tariff barriers and other excuses). Bangladeshis don't want to do business with Indian administration anymore.

Godi Media should just leave Bangladesh alone.

 

[Saif]

Focusing on export of agro-based products

Having the requisite amount of foreign currency to meet import bills as well as external debt obligations is a constant challenge being faced by Bangladesh economy. Aside from export of manpower and service, commodity export is the standard affair to earn foreign currency. B

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Focusing on export of agro-based products

SYED FATTAHUL ALIM
Published :
Jun 29, 2025 21:51
Updated :
Jun 29, 2025 21:51

Having the requisite amount of foreign currency to meet import bills as well as external debt obligations is a constant challenge being faced by Bangladesh economy. Aside from export of manpower and service, commodity export is the standard affair to earn foreign currency. But Bangladesh's export basket could not be expanded significantly beyond apparel products so far. Other manufacturing sectors include leather and leather products, home textiles and the emerging fields of pharmaceuticals and light engineering. But their full potential is yet to be exploited. However, agriculture, the largest sector of the economy, which employs about 43 per cent of the country's entire labour force and contributes about 14.23 per cent to the GDP, is yet to come of age so far as its full export potential is concerned. In FY2023-24, for instance, agriculture's share of the total export earning was only 2.17 per cent at US$ 965 million. Notably, the country's major exportable agricultural products include frozen fish, shrimp, tea, spices, fruits and processed agricultural products. Agro-processing, especially the food processing industry contributes about 1.7 per cent to the GDP and employs 250,000 people.

Since jute, a traditional export item, was declared an agricultural product in 2023 by the government of the time, its status should remain as such so that it may get all the policy support and other benefits that other agricultural products draw from the government. Agricultural products in FY2023 earned US$912 million from exports. If the export earnings from jute and jute products (US$912 billion in FY23) were also accounted for, the total earning from agricultural exports in FY23 would be twice the amount.

At a recent roundtable held in the city, experts and those concerned in the export of agricultural products pointed out how Bangladesh was missing out on the opportunity that the agro-processing sector holds. The global market for agricultural market was US$1.6 trillion in 2022 and is projected to grow to US$2.2 trillion by 2032, according to the Agricultural Commodity Market Research. Bangladesh's agricultural commodity sector with its present worth at around a billion dollar is nowhere near neighbouring India's around US$49 billion dollar in FY24 and with a 2.4 per cent share of the global agricultural export market. India is a very big country with its equally large agricultural sector and a comparable export market. In that case, Vietnam may be a better candidate for comparison with Bangladesh. But there, too, Bangladesh simply bears no comparison. With its USD62.4 billion agricultural commodity export in 2024, which marked an 18.5 per cent increase over the previous year (2023)'s, Vietnam is placed among the world's top 15 agri-product exporters. With more than double the population of Vietnam and a very fertile deltaic plainland, Bangladesh should have been able to fare better in terms of agricultural production and exports. True, Vietnam has far bigger landmass than Bangladesh, but that is not entirely arable due to its rugged central highlands. In fact, it is the government's policy towards agriculture that has enabled that country's (agricultural) products to compete in the global market better than ours.

To compete in the global market, the first condition to meet is the quality of the agricultural products. This requires agricultural practices that are up to internationally accepted standards. Does Bangladesh have required facilities to certify its products that are accredited by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)? Is certification by the country's own testing body, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), acceptable to all importing countries? These are the issues that would matter most if Bangladesh is to carve out a niche in the global agricultural product market.

Is it not paradoxical that Bangladesh has not been able to make its mark in the global agri-product market so far despite the fact that it ranks third in the world as the producer of rice, vegetables and onions; second as the producer of jute and jute goods; fourth in tea production and seventh in potato and mango production? Even rice production has increased in the Barishal region by 1.5 times, thanks to modern cultivation techniques, though its agricultural lands shrank by 6.0 per cent between 2014 and 2019 due to urbanization. These are clear indications of how the immense potential of the country's agriculture is being wasted due to lack of focus and the required practices. As noted in the foregoing, to compete internationally, the first condition of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) has to be fulfilled. That involves maintaining soil quality, optimum water usage, integrated pest management, moderate use of chemical and organic fertilizers as well as eco-friendly resources and post-harvest handling. To ensure safety of agricultural products for both domestic and overseas consumers risks of microbial, viral and toxin-related contamination have to be removed. Evidently, the primary conditions to meet in ensuring those issues is the standard practice of hygiene, managing water quality and safe handling of inputs. It is a whole host of good practices that protects soil, environment and minimise pollution. Also, protection of workers' health is an issue that should be addressed through providing them with necessary training, protective equipment and, most importantly, safe working conditions. High quality agricultural products also require having proper storage facilities for agricultural products.

President of Bangladesh Agro-processors' Association (BAPA), Md. Abul Hashem, reportedly told a recent discussion event in the city that if proper policy support from the government is assured, Bangladesh, within the next three years, will be able to earn thrice the amount it now does (around US$1.0 billion) from agricultural products export. Apart from that the areas needing urgent addressing, he pointed out, include absence of internationally recognised testing facilities since BSTI's certification is not globally accepted, acute shortage of technical experts and farmers lacking required skill in fertiliser application. All these factors together militate against quality of agricultural products. It is worthwhile to note that though the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the agro-processing sector, they lack the capacity to meet the compliance criteria of the global market. That brings us to the issue of initiating skill development training for workers employed in the SMEs as well as developing management skills of those operating the SMEs on a massive scale.

The government has a huge stake in developing the agricultural sector as part of diversifying the country's export basket so that the economy may survive the post-graduation challenges of a highly competitive world market.​

 

[Egyptian]

@Bilal9

Just over Mangos?

 

[Bilal9]

Just over Mangos?

Much ado over nothing - as usual. Another BJP attempt to bad-mouth Bangladesh' interim govt. using its media.

Export of Bangladeshi Mangos to China is not the same as Hasina's Mango diplomacy and symbolic gifting of Mangos to Indian leaders.

Bangladesh has set up a commercial Mango export logistics cold-chain with Chinese Customs and Agri-import authorities. Chinese market has a large demand for Bangladeshi mangoes (because of their unique taste) so that demand is being met by establishing Chinese pest-checking facilities in Mango growing areas of Bangladesh. It involves rapid export by airfreighting items to Dhaka (capital) and then airfreighted to Kunming and Changsha, which are the nearest large cities across the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh border.