Speakers at a seminar on Thursday said Bangladesh can carve a niche in the lucrative Japanese processed food market by using Japan's technology in local agriculture sector.

ABEC Bangla Co Ltd, a Japan-Bangladesh joint venture company, organised the seminar to disseminate information about how Bangladeshi agro-processed foods can enter Japanese market.

Chairman of the company Masaki ABE said using modern technology and bringing diversification to the agricultural products are the key to grabbing a share in the Japanese processed food market.

He said if Bangladeshi people can produce agricultural goods by using organic fertilizer and process those following Japanese technology, the Japan's market is ready to take those in.

For exporting processed foods to Japan, the local producers need to abide by Japanese food sanitation law, measurement law, health promotion law and pharmaceuticals affairs law, and follow labelling standard, Masaki added. "The producers can easily comply with the regulations maintaining processing guidelines."

ABEC Bangla is providing local producers with know-how to maintain standard and quality of foods and offering support to adopt Japanese technology for

processing their food products.

The company also gives marketing support to the local producers and shows ways on how to use indigenous raw materials for processing foods.

Mustafa Mohiuddin, joint secretary to commerce ministry, Tomohiro Kinomoto, representative of Japan External Trade Organisation, Abdul Awal Mintoo, former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), and Dewan Sultan Ahmed, vice president of FBCCI, among others, spoke at the seminar, which was attended by a good number of entrepreneurs and executives of different agro-based companies.