Bangladesh’s mango export has nearly trebled in volume terms to 791 tons in 2020-21 financial year from 279 tons in the previous fiscal.

However, taking into account the USD 1.5 billion global mango trade, Bangladesh’s export growth is still very insignificant and the country holds enormous potential as the seventh largest producer of the juicy edible stone fruit, according to the traders.

For many years, Bangladesh’s potential, however, remained largely untapped as the regulators neglected in implementing good agricultural practices (GAP), a prerequisite for exporting mango to foreign markets.

Bangladesh’s South Asian and Southeast Asian neighbors such as India, Pakistan and Thailand have captured many key export markets. Mango has been fetching hefty export earnings for these economies. Bangladesh’s export earnings from mango in 2020-21 fiscal were only USD 50,000, whereas, the figure was as high as USD 101 million for Pakistan (world’s 5th biggest mango producer) and USD 137 million for India (ranked first in mango production in the world).

India’s mango export earnings were second only to Thailand (USD 734 million) in 2020-21.

Bangladesh, which produces some of the sweetest and delicious varieties of mangoes, recorded a national output of nearly 1.5 million tons this year.

Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture on Sunday held a stakeholders meeting to discuss ways and means of improving mango exports in coming years.

Mamunur Rashid, a British-Bangladesh Chamber leader, who is exploring the prospect of more mango export from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom, told the meeting that India and Pakistan have placed themselves strongly in the UK market as key mango exporting nations but, “still, in my estimation – we can have potentially a demand for 1,000 tons of mango from Bangladesh in the United Kingdom.”

The ministry officials said each year Japan sources over 7,000 tons of mango – some of it from South Asian countries but not from Bangladesh. They said, the Japanese envoy in Dhaka has recently expressed his keen interest in good mango varieties of Bangladesh and had said those can be exported to his country provided quality isn’t compromised.

Ashoke Madhab Roy, a former Bangladesh government secretary who is now involved in mango trade, said they’ve organized a mango fair in Manchester and London recently and got very encouraging spot orders for the fruit.  

Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables & Allied Product Exporter’s Association President SM Jahangir Hossain explained the key roadblocks in increasing the volume of mango export.

The messy cargo village of the Dhaka airport is found wanting in the proper handling of perishable products like mangoes and vegetables.

While countries like India have made it mandatory for air cargoes to keep at least a fourth of the space available for perishable export goods, in Bangladesh mango and other perishable items get little priority, said Hossain.
 
(SAM)