Export of fruits and vegetables
Monday, 23 June 2008
THE fruits, vegetables and allied products exporters in the country have been pressing for effective government actions to facilitate fast and less costly air freighting of their perishable products so that they can expand their business. Such exporters have been facing a formidable constraint due to inadequate air freighting capacity and the high charges.
On its part, the government waived sometime back the ground handling charge for the shipment of fruits and vegetables by air. Also some foreign airlines that previously refused to carry such cargo from Bangladesh agreed to do so following the new decision.
But it is ironical that the national airliner is not lifting such cargo. It has limited capacity for carrying fruits and vegetables and its charges are also high.
Vegetable export can get a boost if arrangements for increasing the carrying capacity are made, along with policy moves to scale down the charges.
There is no reason why such things cannot be done by the national airliner because freighting these perishable products round the world can turn out to be a lucrative source of business for it, facing hard times financially.
Business operators in this sector are all for chartered private flights. But they can do it only after the government decides to take up appropriate facilitatory actions to help reduce the charges for such private chartered flights.
Aminur Rahman
Rampura, Dhaka
On its part, the government waived sometime back the ground handling charge for the shipment of fruits and vegetables by air. Also some foreign airlines that previously refused to carry such cargo from Bangladesh agreed to do so following the new decision.
But it is ironical that the national airliner is not lifting such cargo. It has limited capacity for carrying fruits and vegetables and its charges are also high.
Vegetable export can get a boost if arrangements for increasing the carrying capacity are made, along with policy moves to scale down the charges.
There is no reason why such things cannot be done by the national airliner because freighting these perishable products round the world can turn out to be a lucrative source of business for it, facing hard times financially.
Business operators in this sector are all for chartered private flights. But they can do it only after the government decides to take up appropriate facilitatory actions to help reduce the charges for such private chartered flights.
Aminur Rahman
Rampura, Dhaka