After Chapainawabganj's Khirshapat mango, the juicy, fibreless and very large Fazli mango and the black-striped Bagda shrimp are soon to receive geographical indication (GI) certificates.

Md Abdus Sattar, registrar of the government's Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, said the gazette recognising Fazli mango and Bagda shrimp as GI products had already been published, and the certificates would be issued within 15 days. Under the rules, after the applications were received the geographical indications of the two farm products were verified and two journals were published.

No one has yet objected to the indications, he said. If no one claims the products as their own within two months of the journal being published, the certificates are issued.

The Fruit Development Research Centre applied for the Fazli mango GI certificate, and the Department of Fisheries applied for Bagda shrimp.

Fazli, which reaches the market towards the end of the mango season, is also grown in West Bengal in neighbouring India, and saltwater Bagda shrimp are found in several Asian countries.

Explaining why the two products will receive Bangladeshi GI certificates, Md Abdus Sattar said: "The certificate is given for a product that is part of a region's heritage. The character, aroma and taste of any farm product depend on climate, soil, water and geography, and it will be produced only in a particular region."

He added: "For example, 'black tiger shrimp', or Bagda, is found in several Asian countries. But the characteristics of ours will not match any other. Even if it is farmed elsewhere, its taste and aroma will not be the same."

Nine Bangladeshi products have received GI certificates so far: hilsa, Chapainawabganj's Khirshapat mango, Dinajpur's Katarivog, Bangladeshi black cumin, Jamdani, Dhakai muslin, Rajshahi silk, Rangpur's shataranji and the white clay of Bijoypur in Netrokona.

Bagda shrimp is an important commercial species. It has been farmed commercially in Bangladesh since the 1980s and is exported, although exports have fallen somewhat recently.

Source: Bangladesh Pratidin. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.