Bangladesh to sign MoU with UK’s Food Standards Agency
The delegation of FSA said they would look into whether the issue could be covered by ongoing funding from UK AID
Bangladesh is going to ink an agreement with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) of the United Kingdom to increase exports of agricultural products in the European countries.
Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque, who is now in the UK, discussed the matter at the meeting with a delegation of the Food Standards Agency, according to a press statement of the ministry on Tuesday.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the UK-based organisation, the ministry will take initiative to boost the volume of agricultural products in European countries.
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Once the agreement is signed, Bangladesh will take initiatives to set up a state-of-the-art testing laboratory, Phytosanitary certification to meet phytosanitary export requirements for agro-products and improvement of those, the ministry added.
Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque said, "We are working to set up a world-class laboratory to facilitate the issuance of Phytosanitary certification to the agro-products in the country. The UK has such capability in the sector and we want to get this technological assistance from them."
Among others, Professor Robin May, chief scientific adviser to the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Selvarani Elahi, UK deputy government chemist, were present at the meeting.
The delegation of FSA informed that grants could be obtained from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for lab system development. They also said they would look into whether the issue could be covered by ongoing funding from UK AID.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to London Sayeeda Muna Tasneem said initiatives would be taken to include laboratory and phytosanitary certification issues to include in the Trade and Investment Agreement between Bangladesh and the UK which is now at negotiation level.
Recently, European Union (EU) countries have lifted the ban on importing betel leaf from Bangladesh after more than seven years. But the UK did not lift the ban on this crop.
Regarding the issue, the UK delegation said a bill regarding the ban is under consideration in the England, Wales and Scotland parliaments.
During a meeting with leaders of the British-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BBCCI) at the Bangladesh Embassy, Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque urged the UK expatriate businessmen to invest in commercial production of agro-products, and processing of these products in Bangladesh.
However, the business leaders pointed out various issues including high cargo airfare, scanning problem, cold storage problem in Cargo Village for exporting agricultural products from Bangladesh.
They also called for crop production, processing and certification in line with the Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
A Bangladesh delegation led by the minister is now visiting the agricultural exchange firms, research centres, accreditation labs, post-collection technology, etc in the UK to increase exports of agricultural products in the European market.
