The overall trade balance between Bangladesh and Canada has been in favour of Bangladesh until last year.
It is likely that due to the ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the same could be on the other side this year as we are poised to import additional quantities of fertilizer, food grains, cereals and cooking oil at a few times higher price than the previous years.
It would also be due to the fact that while the price of almost all items has increased world-wide at least between 30-40% due to the conflict, perhaps the only item whose price remains static, is the readymade garment, the main export item from Bangladesh to Canada.
Within the first week of the start of the conflict, I asked my commercial counsellor in the High Commission to provide me all details of agencies and companies in Canada that export the of the above -mentioned items to Bangladesh predicting the possible overall implications of the conflict on our country, especially on food security.
I predicted that the supply side issues would be important due to this ongoing conflict which is now being highlighted by the UN and the global community at the end of the third month of the conflict.
We reached out to the concerned Canadian authorities and sensitized them about our possible additional need for items like fertilizer and others, over and above the quantity agreed upon previous year for this year.
They responded positively to our request, appreciating that fertilizer from Canada would be critical to crops production in Bangladesh to feed the 167 million people, as well as availability of other items, like cereals, chickpeas and cooking oil.
I must appreciate our Ministry of Agriculture’s assessment of the situation in advance and requesting me to approach the Canadian authorities for importing additional quantities of fertilizer from Canada.
Traditionally, we import two-thirds of fertilizer (Murate of Potash) from Russia and Belarus and one-third from Canada.
Later, we also received requests for import of cereals and cooking oil from the concerned agency of the government.
While on my own and at the instance of the government, we formally requested the Canadian authorities of additional import of fertilizer and other items, it came down heavily on my mind when I had to also request for import of additional quantity of cooking oil from Canada.
For a long time, I worked as a senior public health policy adviser and as well as headed a Department as its director at the World Health Organization (WHO), called Department of Non-communicable Diseases that deal with prevention and control of diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks and all heart and lungs related diseases, among others.
Like many, as a former public health expert, I knew very well how consumption of oil causes perhaps the most dangerous and debilitating health effects, especially in creating NCD related conditions in the human body.
As an anecdote, I recall that my former regional director of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Office, New Delhi never accepted any invitation for any meal at anybody’s house only to avoid oil in food.
He is now close to 90 and is keeping healthy and well and also doing daily work-out. He often told me that if we developed the habit of eating boiled, half-boiled or steamed food, especially vegetables and curries, we would forget our craving for any oily and so-called tasty food that are highly unhealthy and, in the end, deadly.
It is just a matter of habit; and by developing this habit of eating healthy food along with daily exercise, we could live a long healthy life.
Compulsion
At a time when our government is adopting all kinds of possible foreign currency saving measures, I feel terrible to request for additional import of cooking oil, that too at a 3 to 4 times higher import price (a global phenomenon due to the conflict) costing valuable foreign currency when we need it most.
While I appreciate the compulsions of the government to import additional quantities of cooking oil, I strongly feel that government-opposition alike, we all should advocate for adopting a healthy lifestyle.
Reducing use of oil in food, not only can we preserve our health better, but more importantly, we can save valuable foreign currency by importing less or no quantity of potentially unhealthy items like cooking oil.
I wish our Health Ministry, health professionals and all responsible and educated people, and of course politicians across the aisle could rise above petty politics and politicking, and make sincere efforts through public advocacy campaign against the use and import of cooking oil at a much higher price at this critical time, not only to protect and preserve public health; but also, to not deplete our foreign currency reserve and to keep the currency exchange rate stable.
I personally feel that people outside the government, especially the opposition parties could earn more respect by advocating for consumption of healthy food, especially less oily food.
This should help the people and the country most instead of only criticizing and blaming the government for the higher price of unhealthy items like cooking oil.
We all must also condemn and demand exemplary punishment for those who are involved in hoarding any kind of food items irrespective of their party affiliation.
On the other hand, it is heartening that the government is now working on producing 40% of cooking oil in the country.
It is a timely initiative.
On the part of the High Commission in Ottawa, we are trying to encourage prospective Canadian investors to set up a Canadian cooking oil crushing plant in Bangladesh that would produce pure canola oil.
Canada is the main exporter of canola seeds to Bangladesh and consumption and market size of canola oil in our country is growing hugely every year.
It has grown 120% in 2020 compared to 2019.
I have been promoting the idea of a Canadian canola oil crushing plant in Bangladesh by making a business case with evidence and data showing that it would be a huge profitable business venture for them by first exporting canola seeds to Bangladesh, then crushing them there in the plant and selling the produced oil in the huge domestic market, which is twice larger than the Canadian market.
Moreover, if domestic demand can be met, the produced oil in the plant can also be exported to two big duty-free markets - China and India, as a Bangladeshi made product.
It should be a win-only investment for Canadian investors.
The writer is a former senior public health policy adviser of the World Health Organization, and currently the high commissioner of Bangladesh in Canada. Views expressed in the article are entirely his and do not reflect in any way of any government. He can be contacted at: krahman@mofa.gov.bd