GUWAHATI, Dec 27 — While the Chinese dragon is creating ripples in the rest of the country with its flood of consumer goods, it is Bangladesh which is giving the processed food industry in the North East a run for its money. And Bangladeshi goods are emerging the winners. Bangladeshi potato wafers, bhujia, chanachur, fruit juice and mineral water is flooding the North East markets leaving the local industry gasping for breath. Not long ago, it was the North Eastern producers which were exporting such products to Bangladesh.
Industry watchers told The Assam Tribune here that the Bangladeshi processed food industry has gone way ahead in packaging and marking their products compared to those here. “They have improved their quality too,” they said. Compared to that, the exports of processed food products from the North East, that was mainly directed towards Bangladesh, has gone down dramatically over the last few years. The region has 35 odd active food processing units. This is despite the fact that Centre has offered a slew of incentives to this sector to boost exports.
“Exports of processed foods from this region has gone down very fast,” the watchers said. In 1999-2000, processed foods exports from the North East was 2,300 metric tonnes (MT). It came down to 2,100 MT in 2000-01. In 2001-02, it almost reached its nadir recording figures of just 600 MT. There is almost a 50 per cent decline this year, they said. Bangladeshi imports into this region, on the contrary, has been increasing steadily. Even in 1999-2000, the North East imported potato wafers from Bangladesh worth Rs 80 lakh. In 2000-01, though the potato wafer import declined to Rs 35 lakh, there was increase in the import of other commodities. For instance, Rs 12 lakh worth of tomato sauce was brought in from that country. This is apart from huge imports of fruit juice and even pickles.
The local industry is understandably concerned, even perplexed. Almost all the Bangladeshi imports are available locally too. But where Bangladesh beats the local producers is in pricing, quality, marketing and packaging, industry watchers said. According to reports, even Myanmar is preparing to offer a fight to the local producers — in their home grounds. Myanmarese imports are also rising in this region, the wathers informed. “It’s a sorry situation,” they said. Experts suggest that value addition, quality improvement and good packaging is the only way out for the local industry. Else they may perish against the Bangladeshi onslaught. With it will vanish employment opportunities for a large number of people.