Fertiliser shortages have appeared in parts of Bangladesh despite adequate national supply, and farmers have protested. Part of the imported and locally made fertiliser, it is alleged, has been smuggled to Myanmar by sea for the past two months. To stop it, the Bangladesh Coast Guard is leading Operation Sar Suraksha along the coast.
The price gap is the draw. Sources say a 50 kg sack of urea costs Tk 1,250 at dealer level and Tk 1,350 for farmers at home, but sells for the equivalent of about Tk 9,000 in Myanmar. A wooden or fishing boat carries about 1,000 sacks, worth Tk 12.5 lakh in Bangladesh; with boat hire, premiums and the cost of getting a seized cargo released, a shipment costs Tk 20 to 22 lakh to deliver and sells for Tk 90 lakh. Mahbubul Alam Khan, general secretary of the Bangladesh Fertilizer Association's Chattogram unit, puts the profit at more than Tk 7,000 a sack.
People in the trade say imported fertiliser moved from Majhirghat in Chattogram on lighter vessels is offloaded at a ghat on the way and transferred to wooden boats, while fertiliser bought from dealers is trucked to ghats in Sitakunda, Mirsarai and Noakhali and loaded there. Several cargoes being moved from trucks to Myanmar-bound boats have been caught recently on the coasts of Teknaf, Ukhia, Moheshkhali, Kutubdia, Sitakunda and Mirsarai. A Coast Guard source said conflict in Rakhine, Chin and Maungdaw has left markets there dependent on Bangladeshi fertiliser and building materials.
Coast Guard East Zone said 255 tonnes of fertiliser were seized and 95 people arrested between July and 25 September, with 15 cases filed. On 25 September four trucks and a fishing boat carrying 960 sacks of urea were seized at Ichhakhali ghat in Mirsarai; Mirsarai UNO Sumaiya Akter said the three men detained were labourers and were released after checks, and the fertiliser was auctioned on the spot with the money paid into the treasury. Earlier, on 10 September, 700 sacks of urea were seized at Banshbaria ghat in Sitakunda.
A Coast Guard officer involved in the operation said the law against fertiliser smuggling is weak, so offenders are often freed after a mobile court fine of a few thousand taka. The Coast Guard says it has stepped up round-the-clock patrols at ghats, intelligence-led raids and technology-based surveillance.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah, additional director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Chattogram, said timely and adequate fertiliser is essential for crops, a shortage could feed through to commodity prices, and monitoring at the grassroots needs to increase. Traders fear the shortage will deepen if the smuggling is not stopped.
This report is based on reporting by Sohag Kumar Biswas, Amar Desh's Chattogram correspondent.
Photo: Mamun2a / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Amar Desh
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