Lentil imports on the rise
Bangladesh's lentil imports are on the rise due to increased consumption amid inadequate domestic production.
Farmers produce 1.75 lakh tonnes of lentils annually while various businesses and importers say that the country's yearly requirement is around 6-7 lakh tonnes.
Lentil imports hit 5.21 lakh tonnes between July-September of 2020, a 58 per cent increase compared to the same period the year before, data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows.
"Consumption is increasing and imports have shot up," said Abul Bashar Chowdhury, chairman of BSM Group, one of the leading importers of consumer goods.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has also boosted the demand for pulses as many people want to avoid animal based protein in fear of infection.
Annual imports stood at around 2 lakh tonnes four to five years ago.
"It appears that farmers are switching to high-value crops in search of higher incomes. We used to see downward pressure on prices when domestically produced lentils would arrive in the market during the harvesting season but we did not see any such pressure over the last four-five years," he added.
Legumes are also a sensitive crop as rainfall and higher temperatures affect yields and so, the cultivation and availability of lentils and pulses has declined.
"We have also become dependent on imports for peas," Chowdhury said.
Shafi Mahmud, president of the Bangladesh Pulse Traders Association, said pulse cultivation has dropped over the years and the shortfall in supply is met through imports from Australia, Turkey, Canada and Nepal.
"Once we used to see pulse fields spread sporadically from Amin Bazar of Savar to Aricha of Manikganj but they are not seen that much these days," he said,
Now, farmers produce lentils and pulses almost solely for their own consumption.
Mahmud, who has been engaged in pulse trade since 1980, said they used to see pulses arriving from various parts of the country to their wholesale.
"We would receive 1,200-1,500 bags of pulses from Barishal in our store but that is almost absent now," he said, adding that imports started increasing slowly from 2005.
Anup Kumar Saha, deputy executive director of ACI Consumer Brands, said low yields might be another reason for low production of lentils.
"Why would some grow lentils if they can't make profit?" he said.
Chowdhury said a lot of thrust was given on research to develop improved varieties of rice.
Crops like pulse, onion, wheat did not receive adequate attention in case of research.
As a result, production has not increased to that extent and import dependence has increased, he said while suggesting that steps should be taken to develop improved varieties of pulses and other commodities for which Bangladesh highly depends on imports.
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