Beef imports should resume; India appeals to Bangladesh
New Delhi: India has requested Bangladesh to resume beef imports.
The government of Bangladesh stopped the import of frozen meat including buffalo meat from India to protect local livestock farmers and improve the domestic livestock sector.
Financial Express reports that the Indian Embassy in Dhaka has sent a letter to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock asking them to resolve the issue.
The letter states that as per the Import Policy-2021-24 notification issued by the Ministry of Commerce in April 2022, import of meat, including frozen buffalo meat, requires prior approval from the Livestock Department.
Traders also said that there has been no import of frozen beef for the past few months, which has affected their businesses due to the change in import policy.
The letter states that Indian companies are the largest global exporters of meat from Bangladesh. Bangladesh is now self-sufficient in meat production. But the letter indicated that some luxury hotels were also importing the meat, spending about US$2.5 million in the 2017-18 fiscal year importing the item from 14 countries.
According to the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), the country has reportedly produced over 8.44 million tonnes of meat in the financial year 2020-21.
Bangladesh imports meat from 14 countries. Other countries are India, Ethiopia, France, Korea, Thailand, China, United Arab Emirates (UAE), USA, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
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