Call for tariff hike on import of dry chilli

Deputy Speaker of parliament Fazle Rabbi Miah yesterday called for increasing tariff on dry chilli imports to help develop the domestic market.

“Increased tariff will promote local production and consumption of dry chilli.”

Presently, there is 54 percent duty on import of green chilli, but dry chilli faces only 10 percent duty.

The country should not be allowed to be a market full of foreign chilli, he said at a roundtable on the challenges and opportunities of the chilli market in Bangladesh.

Oxfam organised the event at Brac Centre Inn in the capital.

Fazle Rabbi Miah urged the business community, especially the agro-product processors, to play their due roles to ensure benefits to the growers.

Bangladeshi chilli is better in terms of taste and quality compared to the Indian ones, said Eleash Mirdha, director of PRAN.

An excess supply of imported chilli would hamper the growers' earnings and discourage them to go for further production, he said.

“We should develop the domestic market to compete with India and Pakistan in case of exports to Europe and the Middle East,” he said. 

Middle East and other European countries have recently banned Indian chillies, which were found to contain toxic ingredients, Mirdha said.

“We can tap this opportunity as Bangladeshi chilli is the hottest chilli in the world,” he said.

Local farmers should diversify chilli production to increase harvest, he said. The government and agro-processors should work to improve farmers' post-harvesting knowledge of chilli, he said.

A well-connected supply-chain should be built to cut middlemen and help farmers get fair prices, he said.

It is important to find ways of getting increased yield, said Fouzia Nasreen, general manager of Swisscontact.

The domestic market will develop if the supply-chain and quality improve, she said. Lack of access to finance is the main problem for farmers and the government should focus on that, Nasreen said.

“Product diversification is important to develop the domestic chilli market,” said Selim Raihan, a teacher at the economics department of Dhaka University.