Bangladesh ranks world's 3rd largest food importer

Bangladesh has become the third largest country for importing food products from the global market in 2021, according to the latest report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) recently published World Food and Agriculture Annual Statistical Booklet 2023, Bangladesh produced around 93.3 million tons of agricultural product in 2021.

China ranks first in food imports, while the Philippines comes second in the list.

In the same year, Bangladesh imported around 12.5 million tons of food products from the global market. The highest food import expenditure is still made on wheat, edible oil, and milk powder.

Indicating that the cost of import-dependent food products in Bangladesh is high, FAO mentioned that the per capita consumption of edible oil, meat, milk, and such nutritious food is the lowest.

However, the per capita consumption of food produced in the country, like rice, vegetables, fish, and fruit is good. In this category, the people of Bangladesh are ahead in calorie consumption, the report said.

Commenting on the data, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque told the media: "We have taken the initiative to increase the production of import-dependent food products. Production of edible oil, onions, and lentils is increasing as a result of innovating new varieties and providing incentives to the farmers. We hope these agricultural products will curb Bangladesh's dependence on imported agricultural products."

The FAO report, however, highlighted that Bangladesh has fallen behind in food exports.

The top five countries in food exports are, in order, the US, UK, Germany, China and France. Bangladesh is near the bottom.

The country ranks third in rice production only among the six main food products of the world. It does not rank among the top five countries in the production of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oil, and potatoes.

In the past years, Bangladesh imported the first four products. It was not necessary to import potatoes. In fact, Bangladesh would export potatoes. With the price of potatoes suddenly shooting up this year, the country has now entered the list of potato-importing countries.

The FAO report further said Bangladesh's dependence on food imports from the global market is increasing.

In 2010, Bangladesh imported 9.3% of its total food demand, and in 2022 that went up to 11.2%. In that period, Bangladesh's imports of rice, wheat, and edible oil have been rising.

However, due to the dollar crisis, hardly any rice was imported this year. Wheat imports also fell by 30% from the normal volume.

The report highlighted the per capita consumption of calories in all countries. Globally on average, each person consumes 2,978 calories per day. In Asia that average is 2,931 calories.

In Bangladesh, the per capita calorie consumption is 2,614 calories. Of the total calories, 1,288 calories are from rice and wheat or other food grain. Then comes edible oil with 203 calories, sugar with 83 calories, fruit 94 calories, and potato 175 calories.

People in Bangladesh get only 20 calories from meat, 55 calories from milk and eggs, 40 calories from soft drinks, and 52 calories from fish.

According to FAO, Bangladesh ranks among the top ten countries in the world in the production of 22 agricultural products.

These include rice, masur dal (lentils), potato, onions, tea, and such products as well as various fruits.

Bangladesh entered the top-ranking list over the last decade in the production of certain vegetables like pumpkin, cauliflower, among others.