Surplus cattle: Export suggested

Ibrahim Hossain Ovi with Mehedi Al Amin

Bangladesh, seeing a growing surplus in cattle production for several years now, should step up meat and live animal exports to help the sector thrive further, stakeholders and economists say.

India’s 2014 cattle export ban to Bangladesh sparked interest in cattle farming and over the years, the production has been enough to meet the local demand.

During Eid-ul-Azha this year, Bangladesh had a supply of 1.19 crore animals against a demand of 1 crore sacrificial animals, DLS data show. This time, people sacrificed around 91 lakh animals, according to Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock.

The Bangladesh Tanners Association says 50 to 55 per cent of the total cattle are slaughtered during the Eid-ul-Azha. On average, an estimated 2 crore animals are slaughtered annually.

In FY20, the country produced 76.74 lakh tonnes of meat against a demand of 72.97 lakh tonnes – a surplus production of 3.77 lakh tonnes, according to the Department of Livestock Services (DLS).

Boosting export

Economists and stakeholders say exporting meat and live animals along with increasing the local demand have become necessary now as there’s surplus production.

“In the past, most of the sacrificial animals used to come from farmers’ surplus cows. Now the trend has changed and people are commercially raising cattle,” said Khondaker Golam Moazzam, research director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Large scale cattle farming is a result of India’s ban on cow export. Thanks to it, Bangladesh is now able to meet its local demand, he said.

“With a growing surplus supply, it is high time we thought about export along with increasing local demand,” he told The Business Post. To boost local demand, the country needs to lower production cost,

which will reduce the prices of meat, he added.

DLS data show that there are 6,98,115 listed cattle farms with at least two cows. Of them, about 74,000 farms are registered, which have least 10 cattle.

Zohurul Islam, a dairy farmer from Sirajganj, said that they have to buy feed at a higher cost, which pushes up the production cost.

Enormous opportunity

Bangladesh exported meat worth $5,07,160 in the last fiscal year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau.

Potential markets for Bangladesh are the Middle East and South East Asian countries. Exporters say round the year supply of cattle is crucial for exports.

“There is a huge opportunity for export. Farmers need to change their mindset of selling cows only during the Eid and the government has to ensure standard procedure of farming,” Ahmad Asif, chief executive officer of Bengal Meat, told The Business Post.

The company is exporting meat to Kuwait and Maldives. He said that for exporting meat, the government has to qualify as a country to export meat. When importers want to import, they want to know about the country’s status.

Moazzem said that to qualify for exports, Bangladesh has to improve cattle rearing standards by ensuring an international standard quality control laboratory, sanitary and phytosanitary.

“Dairy farmers are capable of supplying cattle for export and the private sector is also skilled enough to find global buyers,” Shah Emran, secretary of Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association, told the Business Post.

Many foreign firms are interested to invest here with a view to exporting to other countries, he said.

“What the sector badly needs is policy support, including low-cost supply of feeds and facilitation to enter into the global market as an exporter,” said Emran.

The government also needs to provide incentives against exports to be competitive, he noted.

“There is a huge potential for meat export as we have surplus cattle and the production is increasing gradually. For export, we need to be prepared to improve the standard of farming and connect with the potential global buyers,” Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Rawnak Mahmud told The Business Post.

He said the government has taken preparations to search markets and improve cattle rearing standard.

“We need to meet international standard in cattle farming and meat production which means the meat has to be free of anthrax, other diseases and antibiotics,” he said.