Algeria has expressed interest in buying mangoes from Chapainawabganj. Abdelohab Saidani, Algeria's ambassador in Dhaka, expressed the interest on the evening of Friday, 27 June, while visiting the mango orchard of a farmer named Ahsan Habib in Shibganj upazila of the district.

Abdelohab Saidani said he was pleased to visit the mango orchards of Chapainawabganj. "We want to buy mangoes from here," he said. He added that a cold storage would be built in the district to help farmers protect their mangoes, and that Algeria would invest in mango processing to expand business ties.

Mango farmer Ahsan Habib said mango farmers had been suffering losses for several years. Imports were very high, he said, but mangoes were not being exported abroad in matching quantities. The Algerian ambassador visited his orchard in the evening and liked the mangoes, and assured him that they wanted to take mangoes from here.

Mango trader Enamul Haque Swapan said: "We are dreaming anew. If we can export mangoes to Algeria, the price of our mangoes will rise. Algeria wants to invest in processing farmers' mangoes."

Akhtarul Islam Rimon, vice-president of the Chapainawabganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the Algerian ambassador had visited several mango-processing industries in the district and liked the local mangoes. They want to work closely with farmers, he said, adding that if mangoes can be exported directly to Algeria without any intermediary, "we will benefit".

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