Bangladesh exported one billion dollars' worth of agricultural products last year. If some barriers are removed, those exports will reach two billion dollars within the next two years, and the government has drawn up a roadmap towards that goal.

Agriculture Minister Dr Md Abdur Razzaque was chief guest at the event. Speakers included Mohammad Yusuf, director general (additional secretary) of the Department of Agricultural Marketing; Dr Sheikh Mohammad Bakhtiar, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council; Md Asadullah, director general of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE); and Dr Amitabh Sarkar, chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC). Md Ruhul Amin Talukder, additional secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, gave the welcome address.

Dr Mohammad Raju Ahmed, deputy director (deputy secretary) of the Department of Agricultural Marketing, presented the draft roadmap for increasing exports of vegetables, fruit and processed agricultural products. Dr Md Rezaul Karim, chief coordinator of BADC's research cell, presented the draft roadmap for increasing potato exports.

The presentations identified the main problems in exporting vegetables, potatoes, fruit and processed farm products and proposed a number of recommendations to solve them. If these are implemented, farm exports could earn a projected $1.634 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year and a projected $2 billion in 2022-23 (up to June).

For potatoes, the draft roadmap says exports of 80,000 tonnes are possible in 2022, 120,000 tonnes in 2023, 180,000 tonnes in 2024 and 250,000 tonnes in 2025.

The committee's recommendations for these products include:

• a separate export-oriented research cell at the agricultural research institutes;
• importing seed of the desired varieties from abroad and, after quick regional trials, spreading it through BADC and DAE;
• producing safe, quality goods through contract farming that follows GAP, GPP and GHP;
• a separate gate, a separate area and a separate scanner for farm produce in airport cargo areas, installed quickly;
• compulsorily reserving 20-25 per cent of space on all flights for agricultural products;
• revising air freight rates to stay competitive;
• a modern, standard cold store on one acre near the airport under BADC's supervision;
• certification of export-related tests by internationally recognised boards;
• an international-standard laboratory in the private sector under a PPP model, and support to raise the capacity of existing private laboratories;
• BSTI charging a fee in taka equal to India's 6,000 rupees and delivering test results within seven days;
• lower VAT and customs duty on exports, among several other measures.

The recommendations for potato exports include:

• the Department of Agricultural Marketing, embassies and the BPEA surveying export markets and preparing variety-wise export targets and estimates;
• BADC, BARI and the BPEA keeping applied research ready on likely varieties according to the projections;
• importing seed at subsidised prices until new exportable varieties become easily available;
• BADC, BARI and the RDA stepping up seed production through conventional and tissue-culture methods to ensure enough seed;
• introducing contract farming in selected areas;
• planning short-duration aman rice and early potato planting to capture foreign markets early;
• following the management needed to produce potatoes free of pests and diseases such as hollow heart, brown rot and potato tuber moth;
• strengthening certification, making it easy to obtain and providing internationally recognised certificates;
• attractive, durable packaging;
• uninterrupted transport and shipping;
• extending to potato exports the facilities the shipping corporation receives for carrying goods.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.