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After declining for the last two years, agricultural and food product exports have regained momentum. As a result, agricultural product export earnings may reach the billion-dollar mark by the end of the current 2024-25 fiscal year. Sector stakeholders have expressed such hopes after comparing the export earnings for the first half of the fiscal year.
Analysis of the potential for billion-dollar income in agricultural product exports has shown that after exports declined in two consecutive fiscal years, the export of agricultural and food products produced in the country has increased significantly in the first six months (July-December) of the current fiscal year. According to data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), exports of agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, tea, spices, and tobacco have increased by 9.31 percent in the first half of the 2024-25 fiscal year. In the first six months, Bangladeshi entrepreneurs exported products worth 59 crore and 55 lakh 10 thousand US dollars. Data shows that in the same period of the previous fiscal year 2023-24 (July-December), the export amount was 54 crore 47 thousand 70 thousand US dollars.
Analysis of export data shows that higher exports of fruits, tea, spices, tobacco, and animal fat are generating more income from them. Farmers, entrepreneurs, exporters, analysts, and policymakers see a bright potential for the country's agricultural exports. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, it has increased 2.9 times compared to 2005. In 2022, the global value of agricultural exports (excluding fish) was 1 lakh 90 thousand 300 crore US dollars.
According to a report by the United Nations Food and Drug Administration, the United States is the world's largest exporter of agricultural and food products, worth about 17 thousand 500 crore dollars. However, export growth has slowed to 11 percent in 2022.
Data from the Export Promotion Bureau shows that Bangladesh entered the group of billion-dollar agricultural export earners for the first time in the fiscal years 2020-21 and 2021-22. However, in the next fiscal year 2022-23 and 2023-24, agricultural exports have decreased. According to EPB statistics, agricultural and other processed food exports earned $1.28 billion in the fiscal year 2020-21. In fiscal year 2021-22, exports were $116 crore 20 lakh.
Export Promotion Bureau statistics show that in the next fiscal year 2022-23, export earnings fell to $83 crore 80 lakh 30 thousand. In 2023-24, export earnings were $96 crore 43 lakh 40 thousand. As a result, export earnings fell below the billion-dollar mark.
However, in the first six months of fiscal year 2024-25 (July-December), export earnings are showing signs of hope again, as they have already earned $59 crore 55 lakh 10 thousand.
Market participants say that Bangladesh's agricultural products and processed foods, the highest value-added products, are likely to return to the billion-dollar mark in the current fiscal year.
They said the country desperately needs the re-entry of billion-dollar agricultural exports. Agricultural products have added a new dimension to the export basket. This is expected to reduce over-reliance on ready-made garments.
The garment sector has been the single largest export earner for Bangladesh for more than three decades, accounting for about 80 percent of total export earnings.
Source: Online/GFMM
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