Making a breakthrough with higher quality

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The traditional thinking about business has been that its success does largely depend on supplying products cheaper to consumers compared to rival producers. But this can be a shortsighted approach to production and management. More than price, other factors vitally affect consumers' choice such as product-quality, its packaging, its innovative features, etc. The appeal of lower price does still have some relevance at the low-end of markets dominated by common people with their limited purchasing power. But even at this low segment of the market, intense competition between rival producers both within a country and outside of it, has started. This is creating the pressure on producers to go for improved quality, new product development and paying of attention to environmental and other factors. Successive governments in Bangladesh have emphasised the export-led growth strategy. But the success of this strategy in today's highly competitive international trade depends crucially on the quality aspect. Relying only on comparative advantage of labour costs, Bangladesh so far could go some way in producing and marketing for the international market a few items. But to raise earnings from exports on a sustained basis, it has to diversify its product-base and to that end, it must create export opportunities for agro-based industries, leather industries, ceramic industries, horticulture, floriculture. etc. But in such new ventures, its success will essentially come from sustaining in quality and safety of products and maintaining an edge over its rivals in these areas. These aspects were discussed in a seminar last Wednesday in the capital city, organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB). On its part, the government has put in place some helpful fiscal measures in recent years to facilitate breaking new grounds through exports of agro-products including mainly foodstuffs in processed and other forms. The export destinations of these products would be mainly the developed countries where the prospective markets are located. But the importers of such products are very likely to be keen about the quality of agriculture-oriented products or food products from Bangladesh. In this backdrop, it is imperative for the firms -- which are about to try their hands at exporting agro-products -- to acquire, right from the start of operations, quality control and safety mechanisms of the highest international standard and go on using them unfailingly. The Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) ought to be playing its expected role in this area. It should be placed in a better position to apply itself rigorously and regularly to testing the standard of export products, with the support of the required equipment and personnel to function effectively and properly in its clearly defined areas. Likewise, the BAB also needs strengthening in the institutional sense. Makers of various products in Bangladesh, or potential such producers, frequently complain about not having a level playing field; they maintain that they are tormented by anomalies in tariffs, bad law and order situation, smuggling and other factors. While there is some substance in their grievances, it is equally true that in many cases local producers fail in the competition with foreign products because of their lack of attention to upgrading production processes, for their failure to undertake research and development, inadequate quality control, less attention to safety of products, insufficient workers' training, less consciousness of market trends etc. It is very necessary that they should start paying much greater attention to all such aspects. Recently, there have been some developments which the country's exporters may find favourable. Some countries have already announced or, declared their intention, to facilitate the entry of Bangladeshi products to their markets on a duty-free basis. There could be no better news than this for Bangladesh's export trade. But ultimately, Bangladeshi producers and exporters must penetrate these markets, create market shares on a sustainable basis and expand such shares, based on the high quality of their products.