Journals have been published approving four more products as geographical indication (GI) products of Bangladesh: Rangpur's Haribhanga mango, Moulvibazar's agar, Moulvibazar's agar attar and Muktagachha's monda. This brings the number of approved GI products in Bangladesh to 28. The Ministry of Industries gave the information on Monday (12 February).

The Department of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (DPDT), under the Ministry of Industries and responsible for this work, began operating in Bangladesh in 2003. It is now called the Department of Patents, Industrial Designs and Trade Marks (DPDT). Through the ministry's initiative the Geographical Indication Products (Registration and Protection) Act, 2013 was passed, and two years later the Geographical Indication Products Rules, 2015 were framed.

In 2016 Jamdani sari was recognised as Bangladesh's first GI product. Twenty more products were recognised after that:

• Hilsa of Bangladesh, Khirsapat mango of Chapainawabganj, white clay of Bijoypur, Dinajpur Kataribhog, Bangladesh Kalijira and Rangpur's shataranji
• Rajshahi silk, Dhakai muslin, Fazli mango of Rajshahi-Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh's bagda shrimp and Bangladesh's shital pati
• Bogura's doi, Sherpur's Tulshimala rice, Langra mango and Ashwina mango of Chapainawabganj, and Natore's kachagolla
• Bangladesh's Black Bengal goat, Porabari chamcham of Tangail, Cumilla's rosmalai and Kushtia's tiler khaja

Yesterday, Sunday, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun and Senior Secretary of the Ministry of Industries Zakia Sultana handed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina copies of the approvals and journals for three recently approved products: Tangail sari, Narsingdi's Amritasagar banana and Gopalganj's rosogolla. That took the number of GI products to 24. With today's publication of journals for four GI products, the total number of approved GI products stands at 28.

Two more products are in the process of approval as GI products: Jamalpur's nakshi kantha and Jashore's khejur gur (date molasses). The journals for these two are expected to be published next week.

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