Analysis of Agri-Food Trade Structures

To Promote Agri-Food Trade Networks

In the Islamic Countries

Kingdomwere the top 10 import sources of cotton for Bangladesh during the 2005-2015 period.

Among these countries only India, Uzbekistan and United Arab Emirates (likely misidentified

re-exports) provided more than 50% of cotton import in 2015.

Figure 34: Trend of Cotton Imports of Bangladesh: 2005-2015, Million USD

Source: UN Comtrade retrieved through WITS.

Palm oil and soya bean oil together represent more than one quarter of Bangladesh’s total

agricultural imports and their imports increased significantly (more than four times) over the

last 10 years to meet the increasing internal consumer demands. Indonesia and Malaysia were

the two main import sources of these import products for Bangladesh. Over the last 10 years,

more than 85 % of Bangladesh’s total imports of Palm oil and Soya bean oil were sourced from

these two countries, and more than 50% was sourced from Indonesia alone. However the

growth trends of these two items were also quite uneven during this period of time (Figure 35

and

Figure 36)

. Imports of oil seeds (mainly rap seeds, mustard seeds and canola seeds) also

registered substantial growth during the 2005-2015 period from only 75 million USD in 2005

to 565 million USD in 2015, and mainly sourced from Canada, Argentina, United States and

Australia.

Figure 35: Trend of Palm Oil and Its Fractions Imports of Bangladesh: 2005-2015, Million USD

Source: UN Comtrade retrieved through WITS.

-40%

-20%

20%

40%

60%

80%

500

1.000

1.500

2.000

2.500

3.000

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2015

Growth rate (%)

Cotton

Growth Rate (%)