Agri sector has massive potential for investment: stakeholders at Business Summit

Several segments of the agriculture sector, including processed food industry, cold storage mechanisation development, production of halal food and manufacturing of agri machinery, have massive potentials for investment, stakeholders said at a panel discussion held on the second day of the Bangladesh Business Summit.

Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Chairman PRAN presented the keynote paper at the event organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries (FBCCI), while the program was moderated by Robert Simpson, country representative of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"The consumption of processed food is constantly increasing. There are great investment opportunities here. In addition, the global halal food market is currently $2.4 billion with huge opportunities. There is also a large investment opportunity here as there is a large export market," Deepal Abeywickrema, managing director at Nestlé Bangladesh Limited said.

Anukool Joshi, director, Agro-Pepsico said that the post production loss of agricultural products in Bangladesh and India is as high as 40%.

"So there is room to work in supply chain and value chain development. Bangladesh has a cold storage system, but investment is needed to modernise this mechanism. There are good investment opportunities here too," he said.

"Besides, there is to create educated farmers. Then, the product quality will also improve," he added.

FH Ansary, managing director, ACI Agro Business, spoke about various investment opportunities in agri mechanisation, climate smart crop varieties, and agri processing.

In the keynote paper, Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, said that the food and agribusiness industry is $5 trillion and growing. Increasing crop production, farming activity and trade volume is essential to fulfill this local and global demand.

"In this case, investing in Bangladesh comes with benefits including low-cost workforce, large domestic market and export market, and investment incentives. There is also a 20% export subsidy on locally agro-processed food exports and halal meat exports," he added.

Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque said, "We are working towards modern agriculture, where mechanisation is given more importance. Now food processing should increase."

He also said, "A better value chain should also be created. Investment will come only if we create the environment for investment in these areas. Because there is a big market for processed food in Europe including Arab countries."