According to industry experts, Bangladesh has been failing to export its fruits and vegetables due to a lack of quality and variety sought by importing countries. Amid this situation, they said Bangladesh needs to take concerted efforts to ensure safety and certify farmers so that they get fair prices for products. Adoption of good agricultural practices (GAP), be it local, regional or international, could address safety concerns of consumers.
Their comments came at a roundtable on “Enabling fruits and vegetable export to improve farm income” organised by Germany-based Bayer CropScience in association with The Daily Star at the The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka.
Albert Schirring, global crop manager for vegetables and potatoes of Bayer CropScience, said Bangladesh has a huge number of people ready to pay higher prices for quality products while their export also has huge potential. “Certifying farmers is very very important. As the global GAP is a very high standard quality, Bangladesh can develop its own GAP for its farmers, traders and exporters,” he said.
The government can set a guideline which should be followed by all, he said, adding that farmers would happily adopt GAP when provided training, support and especially fair prices.
Quality control is most important when it comes to export but sometimes many of the country’s farmers do not maintain it, he acknowledged.
“The government is trying to issue common certification for agricultural products which would be accepted globally but the main problem is accreditation, so we are establishing three accreditation laboratories, one of which is already in place.”
Nearly 100 types of vegetables and 60 varieties of fruits are being grown in Bangladesh. The country currently ranks third in vegetable production in the world and 10th in tropical fruits production.
Lutful Hassan, vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said the government was trying to formulate GAP but partnerships were very important to get the best results.
