Mangoes, bananas, jackfruit, pineapples, papayas, ginger and turmeric from the hills can only be made exportable through quality production and good agricultural practices, said Mohammad Hasan Arif, vice-chairman and chief executive of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Banglavision reports. He spoke on Saturday (10 October) at a day-long training for entrepreneurs and growers at the Manikchhari upazila parishad hall in Khagrachari.
On transport costs, he said no unauthorised charge beyond government tolls or taxes is acceptable for moving produce from the hills to the plains; if extortion continues, farmers' production and transport costs will rise and they risk losing their capital. The EPB is working with the government to make marketing easier, he added.
EPB director Kumkum Sultana took participants through the export process, market analysis, finding foreign buyers and the paperwork required. Agriculturists said the lack of good agricultural practices is a major barrier to exporting hill fruit, and quality must be kept at every stage of production, harvesting and marketing.
Smallholder Abu Taher said marginal farmers lose out when they must pay far more in extortion than the official tolls. Orchard owner Enamul Haque said the hills have no cold storage, making fair prices hard to get; mango, jackfruit, pineapple and papaya ripen together, the market is flooded and prices fall.
The training was organised by the EPB with the upazila administration and the Bangladesh Fruits and Vegetables Association, Chattogram. UNO Tahmina Afroz Bhuiyan presided; upazila agriculture extension officer Ripon Hossain and Dr ASM Harunur Rashid, chief scientific officer at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute's Chattogram centre, also spoke. The report is by Banglavision's Khagrachari correspondent.
Photo: Zahid al asad / Wikimedia Commons (CC0); hill pineapples
Source: Banglavision
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