A new airport being built for exporting vegetables.
Bangladesh, a major producer becoming a larger exporter of agricultural products year after year.
NEWSBANGLADESH NEWS
Most people don’t know that Bangladesh is today the world’s second producer of jute with its leaves constituting the base of numerous culinary specialties around the world, while its fibers are being used to make bags, ropes, or carpets for example. It is also world’s third producer of rice with 36 million metric tons annually, worlds’ fifth for farmed fish, world’s sixth of tropical fruits, or potatoes at seventh position.
All this despite unfavorable weather conditions and negative climate change impact.
Science is one of the keys of Bangladesh’s success, like the “Binadhan-7” rice variety, which was developed by the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) with the support of the IAEA and the FAO.
That rice crop needs shorter growing time and produce more rice: 115 days to produce between 3.5 to 4.5 tons per hectare, compared to 150 days for 2 tons with traditional variety of rice.
With an annual production of USD 41 billion the export level of USD 1.2 billion (up from USD 374 million in 2018) leaves ample room for growth.
The growth is already happening with basic agro-processed products taking a more significant share of the production (i.e., frozen shrimp and frozen fish, tea, spices, dry fruits…) and employing 250,000 people.
The development of Bangladesh’s market shares abroad is naturally attracting foreign companies as well as states to invest in the sector. An estimated USD 5 billion of Foreign Direct Investment is expected in the next five years.
One of the main sectors where investment is needed is in cold storage chain, and logistics as a whole.
Part of those investments is the project of a dedicated airport with specific cold storage warehouses, specific scanners to check each shipment (requested by countries like the United Kingdom).
The local market is growing quite fast as well and major companies are investing, like the giant “Arla Foods” (largest dairy producer in Scandinavia and United Kingdom) building new factories to meet the demand which increased by 25% in 2021.
Another example of Bangladesh becoming a larger agriculture actor is in the light of the recent events in Ukraine, disrupting the international food supply, with the French-backed idea of a “COVAX”-like global food alliance.
At the March 24th G-7 summit, the “Food and Agriculture Resilience Mission” (FARM) idea was endorsed and needs now to be discussed in larger forums like the G-20 which includes China and India, major growers of food crops.
France wants Bangladesh in the initiative, planned for supplying food to poor nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Under the Farm initiative, food producing countries will produce more food than usual and will supply to countries at risk of worsening food insecurity under a global allocation mechanism similar to COVAX with the Covid-19 vaccine.
Recently in February, South Sudan government made a singular offer to Bangladesh to lease its vast fallow land to produce crops.
Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said that Bangladesh will send an expert team to identify specific areas of cooperation, comprising agricultural researchers, scientists and workers.
If the offer is accepted, it won’t be the first time that Bangladesh is going to lease foreign land in Africa for agricultural exploitation, as it already happened in Tanzania and Uganda with 40 000 hectares.
Bangladesh is one of the countries in the world with the lowest rate of arable land per citizen, so increasing that land overseas would help the country meet the growing food demand at home, and at the same time benefit economically from sales to local South Sudan market and neighboring African countries. It will furthermore create jobs opportunities for Bangladeshis workers and enhance Bangladesh’s brand image internationally. Ultimately if successful, other countries could request the same to help them develop their agriculture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Bangladesh
https://www.fao.org/economic/futurefibres/fibres/jute/en/
http://www.worldagriculturalproduction.com/crops/rice.aspx
https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/bangladesh-agriculture-sectors
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull58-2/5821415.pdf
https://bida.gov.bd/agro-processing
https://www.newagebd.net/article/167683/mangoes-intercropped-on-25000-hectares-in-bangladeshs-north
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/iraq-wants-buy-mango-potato-vegetables-2984626
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/news/us-help-construct-cold-storages-2984631
https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/france-wants-bangladesh-covax-global-food-alliance-397382
https://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2022/02/10/should-bangladesh-lease-land-from-south-sudan