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Gulf countries United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar have showed interest to import various Bangladeshi products, including food and key essential items, according to a commerce ministry document.
The UAE wants to import some food items, including grains, beef, fruits and vegetables from Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.
On the other hand, Qatar has also showed interest to import sugar, rice, wheat, edible oil and bread from the South Asian country, they said.
They said that the authorities concerned had already taken necessary steps in this regard. They also said that the agencies concerned had given their opinions on export of these items to the two Middle-eastern countries.
"We expect that the consignment of products will be completed as early as possible as per the demand of the two countries," a source concerned said.
"As the two countries showed interest to import products, the ministries concerned have taken required measures for exporting the items to those countries," a high official of the commerce ministry who is dealing with the issue told the FE.
"We are working on the issue. But we are yet to fix the volume of different goods to be exported," he added.
The two countries have shown interest to import items from Bangladesh through the ministry of foreign affairs. The commerce ministry has given its opinion on the issues to the ministry, a commerce ministry official mentioned.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi at a press briefing held at his ministry on Thursday disclosed that the two countries showed interest to import various items from Bangladesh.
In the last fiscal year, the volume of trade between Bangladesh and UAE was US $1.57 billion, with Bangladesh's exports to the UAE standing at $0.34 billion and imports from the Gulf emirate was $1.23 billion.
Bangladesh mainly exports frozen food, knitwear, woven garments, agricultural products, jute and jutegoods, and chemical allied products to the UAE.
On the other hand, it imports mineral fuels, mineral oils and products of their distillation, plastic, product of chemical, vegetable fat, base metal, prepared food stuff, cement, date and glassware.
Bangladesh's export to Qatar was $47,120,338.44 in the last fiscal year, according to Export Promotion Bureau.