Exporters in trouble

The exporters of perishable goods are in trouble again as Biman Bangladesh Airlines is going through a shortage of pallets and other cargo-loading equipment on the ground.

Usually, a Biman Boeing 777-300ER can hold 20 containers and eight pallets, on which the cargo is packed and loaded into planes, claimed exporters. But Biman has been running its activities with half of the required equipment, they added.

“I am hopeful that the crisis of pallets at the airport would be resolved by the first week of next month as we are importing those,” said Rashed Khan Menon, minister of civil aviation and tourism.

The minister declined to comment further.

In March, the exporters had incurred losses in millions of dollars by missing flights following Biman's failure to timely screen perishable goods.

This time, vegetables and betel leaves exporters are again losing money hand over fist. They are having to take back the goods from the airport for missing scheduled Biman flights and sell them in the local market.

“The incidents of exporters taking back goods from the airport are happening frequently due to the acute shortage of pallets, containers and other necessary equipment,” said Foyez Ahmed, proprietor of Tahura International, a clearing and forwarding (C&F) agent and exporter of perishable goods.

Foyez said six consignments were booked and properly screened at the airport, but the cargo could not be sent timely due to shortage of pallets. The plane left the goods on the ground as those could not be loaded on time, he said.

Tahura could not send 15,000kg vegetables and betel leaves worth $75,000 on June 7 and it was not the only C&F agent who had failed to ship that day.

The clients of Tahura had to sell the goods at the capital's Shyam Bazar Wholesale Market at throw-away prices.

Mohammed Mansur, general secretary of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables & Allied Products Exporters' Association, said the exporters did not face the crisis of loading equipment in the case of foreign airlines.

“The crisis of pallets of Biman is nothing new. This is a problem of at least 10 years. But the Biman staffs managed the crisis somehow. But, now the crisis has turned acute. This is why the exports of perishable goods are hurt at the airport,” Mansur said.

The screening of goods at the airport improved as the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in March installed a separate machine only for screening perishable goods.

“Now, we are facing another kind of crisis. We tried to meet the Biman authorities several times to discuss the issue. However, we are not getting the appointments of the Biman high-ups,” Mansur said.

The export process of perishable goods should be sped up as exporters are sending a lot of jackfruits and mangoes abroad alongside vegetables and betel leaves, he said.

Jackfruits and mangoes go bad quickly.

In addition to Middle East countries, the European countries have also become a big market for the national fruit and mangoes. A lot of Bangladeshis there consume these fruits, he said.

Every day, more than 100 tonnes of perishable goods are carried by different airlines from the Dhaka airport, Mansur said, adding that almost half of it are carried by Biman.

Mahbubul Anam, president of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders' Association said Biman has a crisis of pallets, containers and trolleys and the ground services of the airport should be improved by Biman since export by air was increasing every day.