Exporters alleged that negative attitude of Bangladesh Biman is affecting export of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Four months ago, export price of fruits and vegetables was $ 2 per kg. Air fare has been hiked 15 times in last four months to $ 4.50 per kg.
In Bangladesh airfare is double that of neighboring countries, especially compared to India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The scanning fee is 8 US cents per kg. If the flight is canceled for any reason, the goods have to be taken by another flight.
Besides, new scanning fee of 8 US cents has to be paid to load the product on another flight. Meetings have been held with Bangladesh Biman authorities on the issue of scanning fee twice for each product.
Agriculture Ministry Secretary and Commerce Ministry Secretary wrote letters asking Bangladesh Biman to stop charging the scanning fee. But nothing has been done.
Export charts show that exports declined over the years due to inaccessibility to flights -especially for fresh fruit and vegetable exports. Especially, in fiscal 2020-2021, fresh fruits and vegetables exports were worth $ 119.20 million.
Exports of fresh fruits and vegetables in the fiscal 2021-2022 were worth $ 105.40 million. Exports of fresh fruits and vegetables in the fiscal year 2022-2023 were worth $74.60 million. Exports of fresh fruits and vegetables in fiscal 2023-2024 were worth $ 68.30 million.
Phyto sanitary certificates are required to export fresh fruit and vegetables to 22 countries in the European Union and 23 countries including Britain.
A Quarantine Officer of Central Packing House (CPH) located at Shyampur, Dhaka supervises and issues this certificate.
Phyto sanitary certificate is required to export fresh fruits and vegetables to other countries of the world including the USA and the Middle East. Halal certificate is required in some countries.
There are 30 Quarantine stations across the country. From where Phyto sanitary certificate is issued under the supervision of Quarantine Officer.
Also, Phyto sanitary certificate is issued from Benapole Land Port, other land ports as well as from Shahjalal International Airport, Osmani International Airport and Shah Amanat International Airport.
Quality standards of products has to be certified by concerned officer before issuing this certificate, whether the product contains insects or not, whether it is clean or not, has to be certified.
Quarantine officer issues Phyto sanitary certificate after checking whether the product is diseased or not and whether it is exportable.
The validity of this certificate is only 24 hours. If the product cannot be exported within this period, this certificate has to be taken again.
Exporters have to apply online for Phyto sanitary certificates after paying Tk 795 as the fee. To export fruits each needs to have exporter registration certificate.
Certificate from Bangladesh Fruits Vegetables and Allied Products Exporters Association (BFVAPEA) is the precondition to get the government's incentives for exports.
Exporters complain that this certificate is not given if an exporter is not a member of BFVAPEA.
But BFVAPEA is reluctant to give membership.
In this context, BFVAPEA Leader Mohammad Monsur, an exporter of fresh fruits and vegetables, told The Daily Observer that many problems are faced in exporting fresh fruits and vegetables.
If the product cannot be exported within 24 hours, the scanning fee has to be paid for a second time.
Also, if the product cannot be sent within 24 hours, the Phyto sanitary certificate has to be renewed after paying the fee again. This leads to spoiling products.
