Economic Reporter :
Bangladesh is working relentlessly on improving trade relations with the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, especially by urging Moscow to lift its ban on export of Bangladeshi potatoes to Russia in a bid to boost export earnings.
Md Habib Ullah Dawn, president of the Commonwealth of Independent States—Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CIS-BCCI), said this recently.
Bangladesh made the request at the third session of the Bangladesh-Russia intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, and technical cooperation held virtually earlier this month, he added. The Russian side was led by Ilya V. Shestakov, head of the federal agency for fisheries, and co-chair of the commission, while the Bangladesh side was led by co-chair of the commission and secretary, Economic Relations Division, Fatima Yasmin. With over 10 million tons of production during the last financial year, Bangladesh stands seventh in the world in potato production.
Local demand for potatoes can at best absorb 8 million tonnes. Bangladesh usually exports potatoes to Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the Maldives, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
The country’s yearly potato exports crossed the 110,000-ton threshold back in FY2013-14 when Russia opened its market to Bangladeshi potatoes. Of them, about 20,000 tonnes of potato were exported to the Russian Federation alone. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, potato production increased to 8.9 million tonnes in FY2013-14 from 8.6 million tonnes in the previous fiscal.
The CIS states cover 3.2% of the world population. Bangladeshi exporters can penetrate into the CIS countries as part of the county’s market diversification process, said Dawn, also vice-president of FBCCI.
Dawn, also chairman of AM Group, was talking to the daily after holding the sixth, seventh and eighth annual general meeting of CIS-BCCI at the Gulshan Club. The CIS is an alliance of 11 member states, which emerged in 1991 from the former republics of the Soviet Union and are all located in Asia and Eastern Europe. CIS consists of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. The Russian Federation has imposed a ban on export of Bangladeshis potatoes in 2015 citing poor quality. Demand in Russia Russia has a demand of 26 million tonnes of potatoes annually with a shortage of 5 million tonnes, said market sources. They also pointed out that even if the total volume of Bangladesh’s exportable surplus is dispatched to Russia that would not meet half of the Russian demand. Ever since Bangladesh lost its market in Russia, its potato exports have dropped to half. Referring to his recent meeting with Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander Vikentyevich Mantytskiy, Md Habib Ullah Dawn sought intervention of the Russian government in resolving trade barriers to boost export of readymade garments and other products to the Russian market. According to BGMEA, Bangladesh exported to Russia around $594 million apparel goods in FY 2020-21, it was $ 440 million in 2019-20 fiscal year. Although Bangladeshi RMG goods have huge demand in Russia, tariff complications and barriers in transactions through banking channels have posed an obstruction for trade to flourish.
