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Businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and exporters, must ensure their operations comply with international requirements and that their supply chains do not harm the environment, Mahbubur Rahman, president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Bangladesh, has said.
"Our SMEs, cooperatives, exporters, and small producers must now demonstrate that their supply chains are deforestation-free, traceable, and aligned with global sustainability standards," he said during the inauguration of a webinar organised by the ICC headquarters and the International Trade Centre (ITC).
Titled "Get Ready for EUDR: Live Demo of the Geolocation & Risk Assessment Tool," the event highlighted the urgency of compliance with initiatives like the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
"Compliance is no longer a future concern for countries like Bangladesh and others in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It is an urgent priority," Mr Rahman said.
The ICC and ITC have launched the Deforestation-Free Trade Gateway (DFTG), an online platform that provides a comprehensive set of resources for producers and cooperatives across supply chains to ensure EUDR compliance.
The platform allows seamless data sharing with potential business partners, protecting market access and ensuring no actor is left behind. Pilot projects are currently underway in multiple countries.
For Business Support Organisations (BSOs), the DFTG helps fill data gaps, assess deforestation risks, and share verified information with trade partners, thereby expanding market access and strengthening compliance.
The webinar emphasised that the DFTG, a UN-backed global public tool, assists actors across value chains in meeting EUDR requirements, increasing market visibility, empowering smallholders and exporters, and promoting sustainable trade.
Mr Rahman said the EUDR marks a major turning point for global value chains, ensuring that international trade is competitive, environmentally responsible, transparent, and resilient.
The regulation provides a unified digital platform for data collection, verification, and traceability, as well as risk assessment and geolocation-based compliance, supporting smallholders and exporters inclusively.
Highlighting the ITC's pilot projects, Mr Rahman said they reflect collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility necessary for global compliance with EUDR.
He added that the DFTG platform enables ICC Bangladesh and member companies to bridge data gaps, strengthen supply chain transparency, and expand market access for exporters.
"As global trade becomes increasingly sustainability-driven, businesses-especially small ones-must be prepared, capable, and competitive. Bangladesh's future export growth will depend not only on product quality and price but also on ethical, traceable, and responsible value chains," he said.
The webinar was moderated by Sebastian Ferrari, network lead of the ICC Agri-Food Initiative.
Other speakers included Akshata Limaye, associate programme officer at ITC, Mathieu Lamolle, senior adviser at ITC Green and Inclusive Value Chains, and Ataur Rahman, ICC Bangladesh secretary general.
Mathieu Lamolle provided a live demonstration of the DFTG, showing account setup, company profiling, managing public and private data, declaring compliance and certifications, running deforestation risk analyses, and controlling access permissions.
Akshata Limaye introduced ITC's Standards Map, the world's largest public database of voluntary sustainability standards for governments, SMEs, and multinational companies.
Ataur Rahman urged organisers to conduct in-person demonstrations in Bangladesh to ensure local businesses can fully benefit from the platform.
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