INDUSTRY OVERVIEW:

Within the industrial segments, the processed food industry in Bangladesh represents one of the major potential sectors in terms of its contribution to value addition and employment. The sector accounts for over 22% of all manufacturing production and employs about 20% of labor forces. All food processing enterprises account for 2% of the GDP. The food processing industry in the country is heterogeneous in nature displaying greater diversity in size, technology, quality of products, processing, preserving and marketing and distributions systems. The sector is primarily dominated by small and medium enterprises with their strong linkage to the local production and high potential for processing, value addition and export. There are nearly 700 processed food manufacturing enterprises in the country including homemade processing units, of which, at least 30 enterprises are processing fruits and vegetables. These include processing of bakery, confectionery, fruits and vegetables, cereals, dairy, carbonated and non carbonated fruit juices, drinks, other beverages and various other food items. Bangladesh itself with nearly 150 million populations possesses a huge domestic market for processed food. It’s important has been further multiplied due to its closer proximity to north eastern part of India with another over 70 million homogeneous people in terms of food habit and culture. At the moment Bangladesh exports around 90 kinds of agro-processed food products to over 70 countries throughout the world. However, value-wise 81% of the products are exported to ten major importing countries including Italy and UK in Europe, USA and to a smaller extent Canada in the Americas and a number of Middle East Countries with KSA, UAE and Kuwait taking the lead.