Bangladesh needs agro-commodity value chain: analysts

The country should develop a value chain for agricultural and commodities sectors to link growers and producers with processors and markets as well as add value to products, according to speakers.

They said the private sector has to come forward to help the country build the value chain to have a meaningful impact.

They made the comments at a discussion at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka yesterday. Unnoty, an investment of LightCastle Partners, organised the programme.

Representatives from Rahimaf-rooz Group, ACI, Pran, Saint Martin Group and Partex Agro attended the discussion, speaking on a wide array of issues such as food safety, post-harvest and data collection.

Niaz Rahim, director of Rahimafrooz Group, said Unnoty is a much-needed platform for connecting, inspiring, and educating the main drivers of the agricultural produce of the country.

“As a forward market actor, we will be happy to provide support to Unnoty,” he said.

Tashiur Rahman, director of Saint Martin Group, said in Bangladesh there is always a concern about product certification.

If Unnoty can bridge that gap and address proper certification, more people will be encouraged to get involved in developing the value chain. M Saifur Rahman, co-founder of LightCastle Partners, said there has been a rise of tech start-up accelerators in Dhaka recently.

“We believe that this kind of ecosystem is needed to benefit the growth of small and medium businesses in semi-urban and rural areas.”

Last year, LightCastle Partners launched Unnoty, a peer-to-peer accelerator network which works to enable growth of small and medium enterprises.