In the entire world, Bangladesh is considered as one of the major agricultural based countries.
In European sub- continents and Middle East, there is a huge demand for Bangladesh's agro- food products. Agro- food products such as cashew nuts, frozen food, vegetable products, dry foods, juices, betel nuts, fruits and similar other products are exported worldwide from Bangladesh. The agro- food product and its sector contributes almost 30 per cent towards its GDP and it employs almost 60 percent i.e around 30 million people every year. It is basically an agrarian economy. Bangladesh agro-processors’ association (BAPA) has been appointed to establish a sustainable agro- food processing and exporting system.
The growth as well as the diversification of agro - food products hugely depends on below mentioned criteria –
Policy support
Availability of technical and business information
Public- private joint initiative for institutional and financial support
Sustainable as well as innovative development of technology and its related products
Capacity development of the various industries
Research and development facilities
Removal of other barriers relating to the agricultural sector
The government bodies and private institutions too are working on projects on research and development in the sector of Agro-food manufacturing and supply chain. The Export Import Course and Training are provided by the Government as well as Private Institutes.
Agro- food processing involves product transformation originating from that of agriculture, fisheries and forestry. The processing involves basic as well as advanced processing and thus it needs huge labor. In 2019, the country exported 400 million dollar processed agro -food products. It is an industry, which is highly fragmented when it comes to producing agro- products. Due its close proximity to that of agriculture, the industry is largely fragmented in terms of geographical space within the country.
Globalization has made the commerce ministry take initiatives for development and diversification of strategies, which can help to increase volume of trade in the international market. The agro- food sector plays a significant role in socio- economic development of the country. The agricultural production sector has a huge impact on some of the major macro- economic objectives such as poverty alleviation, employment generation, food security, export diversification and human resources development. It is the largest producer of Jute in the whole world and it exports the product in huge quantities.
Soil conditions, climate as well as topography make the country’s area ideal for sustainable and large -scale production of fruits, vegetables and cereals. The local market of agro –food processing can be described as oligopolistic in nature as it remains dominated and concentrated by a limited number of firms .
Bangladesh has adopted digital as well as e- commerce ways for imports and exports. The country majorly exports agro- foods to Middle East, North America and Europe and its sub- continents. The government of Bangladesh has set a target to export agro- food products worth 1.5 billion dollar to various countries and for this they have even made policies which can help manufacturers and producers in increasing exports. This will help in eliminating poverty from the country. The country is making improvements everyday and this will help in having a bright future for the agro- food processing industry.
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