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News coming from the food front of this country is disconcerting. At a time when eleven straight monthly declines in food prices have led to a 19 per cent less costlier average edibles in the international market from their peak last March, a family of four in Bangladesh has to spend 25 per cent more on foods. Again, the average monthly expenditure on foods of a family has increased by up to 51 per cent over the past four years on account of persistent high inflation. A study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) recently disclosed these disquieting developments. The CPD has based its study on the data of the "Bangladesh Urban Socio-Economic Assessment Survey" the country's national statistical organisation, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted.
If the domestic market trend of volatility contrary to the continued global downward drift is not enough, Bangladesh food import bill is soaring unrelentingly. The import cost has by now risen two and a half times higher to Tk 808 billion since a decade back, reports claim. When the authorities time and again assured the nation in pre-Ramadan period that the country had enough stock of foods, people might or might not be convinced entirely.
Here the problem is with the definition of foods. Traditionally, food has referred to the staple. But with the rise in people's income and improvement of the average living standard, this definition has started changing for an inclusive basket of dietary and nutritional items. Yet, it cannot be denied that the availability of rice---the staple for the people here --- still remains a politically sensitive issue. It is also undeniable that the consumption of choice dishes, particularly by a growing high-income class who can afford those, is on the rise.
So what is happening is that the country has overwhelmingly prioritised policies, research, innovation and technology in order to raise the output of rice. As high as 73 per cent of the cropland is now under rice cultivation. In recent years when paddy cultivation proved unrewarding with market price dropping below the production cost, did farmers turn away to produce different cash crops ---some of those exotic. Of course, there was another compulsion of beefing up production of fish and credit goes to scientists for artificial spawning of a variety of local species of fish which were on the verge of extinction.
However, success stories like this did not happen in case of domestic production of wheat, vegetable oils, oil seeds. pulses, sugar, dairy products and spices. The country's dependence on these food items was woefully exposed when the Ukraine war disrupted the supply line a year ago, leading to the highest ever price rise of those. Focus on diversification of crops had been missing until that war presented the grim reality of the country's vulnerability to supply disruption.
What is particularly galling is that although in international market vegetable oils triggered precipitous price fall along with dairy and cereals, sugar and meat have recorded little change from the year before. Inflation-adjusted prices hovered above the average level in recent years but they are back in line with the pre-Russo-Ukraine war level in the global context and yet the domestic market in Bangladesh refuses to comply with that trend. Wheat price is still abnormally priced. Then a case of irrational profit mongering in point is the record rise in price of broiler chicken and then its drop by Tk 40-50 a kilogram almost overnight following the Consumer Rights Protection Department's meeting with the four major producers of broilers. Cost analysis showed that the producers were making profits of Tk 50-60 more above a reasonable profit margin.
This explains how business ethics is compromised here with impunity. The items not grown locally are certainly draining out huge amount of foreign currency. But given the dishonest business practices, there is nothing to be surprised if portions of the import bill of Tk 808 billion of the last fiscal and Tk 500 billion of the first seven months of the current fiscal year are also laundered abroad through over-invoicing. This is a double-pronged ploy to carry away with money laundering and at the same time building lower stocks than the declared volumes.
However, notwithstanding such intrigues on the business front, the reality is that the country has to reduce its dependence on outside sources for the allied foods. The coastal belt in the country's south holds enough promise. Where salinity is a problem and croplands could not produce more than one crop, things are now looking rosy as pulse mung known as green gram bean is finding a favourable host there. Similarly, sunflower cultivation has been giving profuse yield. True, import of all the allied food items including spices cannot be substituted by local production but dependence on imported vegetable oils and pulses can be substantially reduced to lessen risks to the country's food security and the depletion of foreign exchange.
Bangladesh is not among the 80 countries that have severe food crisis. Fragile and conflict-ridden countries, home to 1.0 billion people are still at high risk. The latest news is that Great Britain is going to face a severe food crisis. Bangladesh stands in good stead as the weather so far has been favourable for its main crop Boro, but it has to be on guard because of its endemic climate vulnerability. In the interest of food and nutritional security, it must get its acts together to diversify its cropping in a planned manner. The next challenge is to ensure rational distribution of foods among all segments of the people.