Editorial
From French fry to condiment
Market windfall round the corner
Star Business yesterday featured a story whose title could very well have been 'small is beautiful'. On the back of scarcity and high price of food, the bumper output of potato was icing on the cake of record high production of boro. The resulting sense of relief, however, hasn't been without a worry relating to preservation of such perishable food stuff as potato. In a context where we have grown accustomed to wasting nearly 20 percent of our annual cereal output, the prospect of losing out on potato which is more perishable must have been an added anxiety.
In such a thought-provoking background, Ejab Group, the owning company of Quality French Fried Potato with a modest output of eight-nine tonnes of French fry per month to supply to the local food shops is now thinking big. Simultaneous with realising the fuller potential of the domestic market the local French fry company is targeting sales in the huge export market in the Middle East, Europe and in America.
Even for a wide range of small food items we still depend on import despite the huge potential there is in the country for the growth of agro-based food processing industries. We don't mind paying through our noses to get tetra-packed, canned or bottled food including condiments without looking around to see what is on offer courtesy the local manufacturers. They need material support and encouragement from the consumers and the government alike. For the consumers' part, their rather indifferent, even dismissive attitude to local products vis-à-vis their going gaga over popular foreign brands, must be eschewed. As for the government our understanding is that the Bangladesh Bank is trying to persuade the commercial banks to allocate special funds for SME development.
Equity support is essential for the rise of new entrepreneurship which has seen a slack for quite some time for lack of business confidence. The job is cut out for the concerned ministries, banks and business and chamber bodies to put their heads together to bolster SME in concert.
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