Experts express concern over contaminated Indian chili influx
Farmers, academics, business leaders and representatives from government and non-government organisations on Tuesday expressed concern over increasing import of chili to Bangladesh as the trend would discourage local growers to grow the crop.
They also expressed concern over influx of Indian dry chili contaminated with toxic ingredient Sudan-1, 2, 3 and 4, which were banned in Middle East and other European countries.
They expressed their concern while speaking at a roundtable on ‘Chili Market in Bangladesh : Present Challenges and Opportunities’ held at BRAC center in the city. Oxfam Bangladesh organised the roundtable.
Shankar Kumar Raha, professor of Agribusiness and marketing department at Bangladesh Agricultural University, said the country’s import of dry chili increased to 40,484 tonnes in 2013-14 from 23,216 tonnes in 2011-12.
Presenting his keynote paper, Shankar said that import of chili, mostly from India, has been taking place through both formal and informal channels.
In the long run, continuation of import of chili will certainly cause damage to the economy as the local chili growers will not have any interest in growing the crop, he said.
Deputy speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, who attended the roundtable as chief guest, called for increasing tariff on import of dry chili to promote the production and the consumption of local chili.
Referring to commerce ministry data, he said presently Bangladesh kept on imposing tariff of about 54 per cent on green chili while 10 per cent on dry chili.
The government could increase more tariffs on dry chili import, he said, adding that Bangladesh should not be allowed to be a market for foreign exporters.
Fazle Rabbi urged the business community, especially the agro products processors, to play their due roles to ensure benefits to the local chili growers.
Monoj Kumar Roy, additional secretary (Foreign Trade) at Commerce ministry said that the government allowed the import of chili as there was demand of chili in the country.
He stressed on increasing public and private support to the growers of chili to keep them engaged in production of chili locally.
Yearon Begum, a chili grower from Gaibanda district, said the farmers were not getting fair prices of chili in Fulchuri market in the district as the Indian chili was dominating there.
Tushar Ali, another chili grower from Rangpur, said that although farmers were growing chili in char lands giving hard labour, they were not getting fair price of the crop.
Iliash Mridha, a director in agro-based industry PRAN, said that his company was increasing use of locally produced dry chili considering better smell and hotness.
He called for eliminating middlemen in the marketing process to ensure better benefits to the chili growers.
Dhaka University professor of economics Selim Raihan said it was essential to estimate exact demand of domestic consumption of chili to estimate local production and import.
Regarding import of chili, he said, quality should be maintained by the authorities concerned about the imported chili.
Bhagay Rani Banik, director at Spice Research Center in Bogra, stressed the need for increasing funds to launch researches on spices including chili.
Oxfam country director Snehal V Soneji, DCCI vice president Shahidul Islam, Swiss Contact general manager Fousia Nasreen and ACI marketing manager Mustafizur Rahman, among others, also spoke at the roundtable.
-With New Age input
