To ensure food security, it is essential to implement a comprehensive national policy on all food-related issues, Trade Advisor Sheikh Bashiruddin has said.
He said this in his speech as the chief guest at the third session of the ‘Agriculture, Food Security and Wildlife Conference 2025’ organized by Banik Barta at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel on Monday (5 May 2025) afternoon titled ‘Food Market, Supply and Domestic Capacity’.
Sheikh Bashiruddin said, our inflation basket is wide. I think we should have an inflation index in reference to essential products. This will help us monitor and regulate the market system.
The advisor said, A list of 17 essential products has been specified by the government. If we can ensure the production and supply of 17 essential commodities, then we can utilize the economic potential that we have.
He said, “Agriculture is not just about human food – animal food is also an important issue here. The food that animals eat also comes from agriculture. Again, we take animals as food. There is a relationship between the price of animal food and the price of our food, we have to critically analyze this.
There has been corruption in the past. From quasi-judicial to judicial killings, there is no denying it. For the transition from here, we will have to increase the institutional capacity of our government and the capacity of the organs of the government,” said Commerce Advisor Sheikh Bashiruddin.
Stating that exaggerated data creates serious chaos, he said, “The statistical controls that we adopt in making decisions in various activities are most of the time very confusing.” It needs to be repaired. The big economists are creating these statistics and these statistics do nothing but create a facade.
Last year, I saw that the production of potatoes was 10.3 million metric tons. Consumption was 8 million metric tons. Then the price of potatoes became 90 taka per kg. I noticed that it is not collaborating in any way. Because the statistics were wrong. He added that the correction of statistics is absolutely necessary.
He also said that the financial value of our food market is 30 lakh crore taka. We want to market it better. The economization of agriculture requires syndication of fair mind and syndication of fair policies, he commented.
Citing an example, the advisor said that the price of eggs was 180 taka before Ramadan. We saw that eggs were hoarded and kept in cold storage. The market was artificially increased by stockpiling.
Stating that the previous government had a spending spree, he said, “It has created a final liability on our citizens. It was a matter of achievement to be able to spend the expenditure lists of various ministries that we see in meetings at different times. Spending money by creating a sector was considered an achievement. Once, this was the criterion of eligibility, how much can be spent and how much liability can be created on the citizens. We want to come back from here and create a framework, he said.
Stressing the importance of creating fair trade and market stabilization, he further said, the hoarding that is happening now should be a fair-based hoarding. It can be done by the state, it can be a public-private partnership or it can be done by corporate institutions or the government together. If buffer storage facilities cannot be created, it is not possible to ensure food security. If we know the financial value of the food market of 30 lakh crore taka, then we will have to realize the investment there.
The trade advisor mentioned that a collective syndication of what we need to spend on irrigation, what we need to spend on fertilizer production, how much we need to invest in our agro-ecological sector, what kind of investment we need to make to address the climate vulnerability we have – the climate-related problems we have is needed.
Meghna Group of Industries Chairman Mustafa Kamal, Kazi Farms Limited Managing Director Kazi Jahedul Hasan, National Citizens Party (NCP) Member Secretary Akhtar Hossain, Quality Feeds Director M Safir Rahman, Mutual Trust Bank Managing Director Syed Mahbubur Rahman, ACI Logistics Limited Managing Director M Sabbir Hasan Nasir and Square Food and Beverage Limited Chief Operating Officer Parvez Saiful Islam participated in the panel discussion.
