The New Nation - Internet Edition

DURING last week's Dhaka visit of a group of British investors, the United Kingdom's 3.5 billion pound-a year-curry industry run by the Bangladesh-born British citizens figured with due importance as they complained at a press conference that they don't get Bangladeshi materials for the industry. What they specified was that eighty per cent of the materials they use are imported from India although they do not find any reason for not buying products from Bangladesh if the quality and packaging are of European standard. Britain's curry industry, run by Bangladeshi-born British citizens, is doing good business as they acquired specialisation in the field. It has been extended to the US across the Atlantic.

Bangladeshi restaurants have sprung up in dozens even on a single street in New York's Manhattan for popular spicy dishes. Bangladesh could get rewards by becoming a supplier of raw materials to the UK's curry industry as opportunities are there. Produces like vegetables, species, rice are now mostly sourced by the United Kingdom from India. The only major product that now goes from Bangladesh is shrimp and prawns. The Bangladesh-born restaurant owners asked for government support to open up a trade avenue from Bangladesh. They demanded subsidy for such exports and a cutting-edge standard testing facility for curry industry products to the UK.

Many of the Bangladesh-British citizens who are running curry industry for generations have shown keen interest in investing in agriculture exclusively for producing Bangladesh varieties of fresh raw materials instead of importing from other countries. A number of farms have grown up with such investments from expatriates in Mymensingh and other rural areas for feeding UK's curry industry though on a small scale. Recruiting the required manpower from Bangladesh to cater to the expanding needs in the UK creates very often problems.