Russia has proposed forming a joint trade commission with Bangladesh to ease bilateral trade.
At a meeting with Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury yesterday, Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander A Nikolaev said potato export from Bangladesh would be a positive step towards that venture.
The ambassador was with a delegation of Russian quarantine experts visiting Bangladesh to collect data on potato production and export facilities here.
Nikolaev said Bangladesh had to improve the quality of potato production as well as the potato seed.
Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said Bangladesh had been producing around 1 million tonnes of potato in surplus every year which could be exported to Russia.
Agriculture Ministry’s Additional Secretary Anwar Faruque and a few senior officials were present at the meeting.
The four-member Russian quarantine experts team arrived in Dhaka yesterday to look into potato cultivation and preservation system in Bangladesh. It will place recommendations on the future of exporting essential food items including potato from Bangladesh.
Russia, the second largest potato importer from Bangladesh, explored the country’s market during the last fiscal year for the first time.
It, however, expressed concerns about the presence of a bacterial infection called Brown Rot in one of the shipments.
Bangladesh exported potato worth $34m to different countries in 2013-14 with Russia importing potato worth $9m. Malaysia was the largest importer, buying potato worth $13m.
Following up on Russia’s objection, the government has undertaken an intensive plan, including use of selective land cautiously to produce infection-free potato.
