A call by the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association at a press conference in Dhaka on Sunday for permission to import beef has reopened the argument over meat prices and the protection of the country's cattle farms. Beef currently sells for Tk 800 to 850 a kilo; the association says imports would bring it within Tk 500.

Imran Hasan, the association's secretary general, says the restaurant trade depends on beef, that its price has moved beyond reach, and that even at high prices the cuts restaurants need are hard to find. Large industrial groups and hobby entrepreneurs control the farms, he argues, which has driven prices up and made cattle rearing costly for ordinary farmers. He acknowledges, however, that no formal proposal has yet been put to the government.

Md Delwar Hossain, secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, said the government has no plan to import meat and has received no such proposal. "Enough livestock will come to market this Eid too, so there is no risk of prices rising for want of supply. And we believe there is simply no need to import, because even after the Eid demand is met the country has a surplus of more than 2.5 million animals," he said.

The price history shows how fast beef has climbed. For Ramadan in 2019 Dhaka South City Corporation fixed the price at Tk 525 a kilo; at the same point in 2021 it was Tk 560 to 600, in 2022 as high as Tk 650 to 700, and by 2023, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, Tk 720 to 750. Many blame a class of traders for exploiting the halt in cattle from India to push prices to their present level. Bangladesh has around 60,000 hotels and restaurants, about 25,000 of them in Dhaka.

Policy leaves little room for imports. The Import Policy Order of April 2022 for the first time required prior approval from the Department of Livestock Services for imports of beef, goat meat, chicken and other meat, and the department says permission is not given without special reason. India tightened its restrictions on cattle exports to Bangladesh after 2012 until the flow all but stopped. A few firms do import frozen beef for five-star hotels and some restaurants.

The idea is not new. In 2018 some Bangladeshi businessmen proposed importing beef from India, which exports processed meat to about 70 countries; Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, then president of the FBCCI, called it a practical solution, but the livestock ministry rejected it, saying the country's annual meat demand of 7 million tonnes was met entirely at home and imports would put the sector in crisis. In August 2024, a few months before the fall of the Awami League government, Brazil's foreign minister on a first visit to Dhaka offered beef at under Tk 500 a kilo; Bangladesh countered with interest in live cattle, and nothing followed.

For farmers and agribusiness the question is one of balance: consumers and restaurants want cheaper meat, while entrepreneurs who have invested in farms and meat processing over the past decade want protection. So far the government has declined to take any step that could hurt domestic livestock production.

Source: BBC Bangla