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Don’t import meat from abroad: Traders


Published : 09 Sep 2019 09:14 PM | Updated : 04 Sep 2020 01:45 AM

Bangladesh will face a severe impact on livestock if beef import from abroad is allowed. The warning came from livestock experts and local meat traders while talking to journalists at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday. The livestock businessmen at the programme while expressing concern urged the government to refrain from such initiative for the sake of and in the greater interest and growth of the local industry.

“Rural economy, leather & leather goods sector, soil-health, financial sector, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, other livestock related sectors and total food security will fall in jeopardy, if beef import is allowed,” said Dr M Nazrul Islam, president of Animal Health Companies Association of Bangladesh (AHCAB). Importing frozen beef in the context of meat sufficiency of Bangladesh is contradictory and illegal, Islam argued.

The press conference was jointly organised by AHCAB, Bangladesh Dairy Farmers’ Association (BDFA), Bangladesh Veterinary Association (BVA), Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA), Bengal Meat and Bangladesh Agro Feed Ingredients Importers & Traders Association. Dr Sharif Ahmed Chowdhury, general manager of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), presented a keynote titled ‘Exporting Garments in Exchange of Meat – Can We Afford that?’ at the press conference.

Nearly 60 million people across the country partly or fully and 14.8 million farming households will be affected, if beef import is allowed, according to the report. Import of meat (Bovine, Ovine, Caprine or Poultry) should be halted to protect our farmers under WTO arrangement, it recommended.

While talking to reporters at the programme, the AHCAB president said, Bangladesh is already self-sufficient in beef production, and local cattle were in surplus during Eid-ul-Azha in the last two years. There is an annual demand of 7.297 million tonnes of meat in the country estimated as per the demand of 120 gram of meat per head while a total of 7.514 million tonnes of meat, led by chicken, were produced in the fiscal year 2018-2019(FY) which is in surplus, Nazrul said.

A good portion of youth and entrepreneurs will be jobless if frozen beef is allowed to be imported, M Nazrul said. Shah Emran, general secretary of BDFA and Khondokar Md. Mohsin, joint secretary general of BPIA, among others, were present at the function.