Analysis of Agri-Food Trade Structures
To Promote Agri-Food Trade Networks
In the Islamic Countries
60
achievedmoderate growth of 17% in 2011. Again the sector lost around one quarter of its export
value in 2012 which was again regained in 2013. The sector’s export earnings yet again declined
by 12% in 2015. These uneven growth trends of agricultural export could not keep pace with
the country’s fast growing other export sectors. As a result, the share of Agricultural exports in
Bangladesh’s total exports reduced from 7.58% in 2005 to only 3.15% in 2015.
Bangladesh’s exports of agricultural products were mainly dominated by Fish products,
followed by Agri-food and Agricultural raw materials during this period. The share of Fish
products in total agricultural exports however reduced from 58 % in 2005 to 45 % in 2015. The
share of Agri-food products in total agricultural exports increased from 24% to over 40%, while
the share of exports of Agricultural raw materials remained almost unchanged during that
period .
Figure 29: Composition and Evolution of Export of Agricultural Products: 2005-2015
Source: UN Comtrade retrieved through WITS.
This section focuses on identifying and analyzing top agricultural export products of Bangladesh
at the disaggregated level as specified in Annex 1. Table 14 shows the shares of the top 10 export
items of Bangladesh from 2005 to 2015, which are selected based on the last 3 years average
export value. This analysis shows that Bangladesh’s Agricultural export was highly concentrated
within a few specific products over the last decade. While the top 10 export items accounted for
more than 90% export earnings in 2005, these 10 products still represent 85% of total export
value in 2015. These 10 product groups are Crustaceans (live or dead), chilled or frozen; Jute
and other textile based fibers; Vegetables- fresh, chilled or frozen; Fish, fresh (live or dead),
chilled or frozen; Tobacco and tobacco manufactures; Fruit and nuts (not including oil nuts);
Fruit and vegetable juices; Spices; Bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits and other bakers' wares and
Edible products and preparations. Among these 10 product groups only the first two,
Crustaceans (live or dead), chilled or frozen and Jute and other textile based fibers was
accounted for more than 50 % of country’s total Agricultural export earnings, which was even
higher (around 69 %) in 2005.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015
Agri-Food Products Agricultural Raw Materials Fish Products