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Sunflower cultivation is expanding in Bangladesh as growing edible oil prices in the international market are fuelling demand for locally sourced alternatives. As such, the oilseed has been sown on 1,068 hectares of land in Patuakhali alone. The picture was taken recently from the Chiknikandi area of Galachipa upazila.

Soybean consumption to rise in Bangladesh: USDA
SOHEL PARVEZ
Bangladesh’s soybean consumption is likely to rise owing to the recovery from the economic slowdown in the fourth quarter of the calendar year, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasted last week. The agency forecasted that Bangladesh would buy 24 lakh tonnes of soybean for crushing in loca
Bangladesh’s soybean consumption is likely to rise owing to the recovery from the economic slowdown in the fourth quarter of the calendar year, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasted last week.
The agency forecasted that Bangladesh would buy 24 lakh tonnes of soybean for crushing in local mills in the 2023-24 marketing year, up 50 per cent from its previous estimate for the marketing year beginning in July.
Last year’s imports were 41 per cent below the USDAs’ official estimate of 27 lakh tonnes.
Higher prices and the foreign exchange crisis affected consumption and imports.
“Since the middle of 2022, Bangladesh has been facing a severe dollar shortage that disrupted imports. Appreciation of the US dollar against Bangladeshi taka also increased import costs,” said the agency in its Oilseeds and Products Annual released on Thursday.
The USDA, in its report on Bangladesh, said the government stopped all non-essential imports and reduced the supply of dollars to commercial banks.
Therefore, soybean imports fell significantly in 2022-23 marketing year, it said adding that total whole soybean crushing fell 28 per cent to 20 lakh tonnes from the USDA official estimate, due to lower soybean imports and reduced demand for soybean meal in the feed industry.
“Contacts noted that major soybean crushers in Bangladesh slowed their crushing from October to December 2022 due to low supply. Soybean imports also dropped to zero during that period on high international prices and country’s foreign exchange crisis,” it added.
Not only soybeans, import of other oilseeds and crude oil declined in the marketing year of 2022-23.
The USDA said Bangladesh’s soybean oil consumption declined as many households have shifted to palm oil because of high prices of soybean oil.
In May last year, packaged soybean oil prices hit record high of Tk 198 each litre at retails in Dhaka.
As a result, soybean oil consumption declined to 985,000 tonnes, down 10 per cent from the USDA’s earlier estimate.
Palm oil consumption, however, grew at the same time, pushing up imports of the vegetable oil from southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, major suppliers of palm oil for Bangladesh.
The US agency said both soybean oil and palm oil consumption might rise to 12 lakh tonnes and 15 lakh tonnes respectively in the coming marketing year of 2023-24.
Domestic production
The USDA said Bangladesh can meet 10 per cent of its edible oil requirements by domestic production of oilseeds like mustard or rapeseed, sunflower, peanut, sesame, and soybeans. The rest is imported as crude oil or as oilseeds.
During the current fiscal year, total oilseed production is forecasted to grow 13 per cent year-on-year to 14.16 lakh tonnes.
In case of soybean, local production accounts for about 5 per cent of its annual demand for Bangladesh.
It is mostly grown in the southern belt, including Noakhali, Lakshmipur, and Bhola districts.
“Domestically produced soybeans are used predominantly in the feed industry,” it said adding that average yield of soybean varieties in Bangladesh is about 1.8 tonnes per hectare, much lower than the world average of 2.8 tonnes.
“Low yields have historically reduced cultivation. While in recent years soybeans have been gaining popularity as a cash crop, particularly among farming households in the south, overall, the unavailability of high yielding varieties and lack of quality seed continues to hamper the expansion of soybean cultivation,” said the US agency.
It said since 1990, more than 10 high yielding varieties of soybean have been released in Bangladesh, but approximately 70 per cent of soybean farmers are still cultivating the “shohag” variety, which was officially released in 1991 and has a yield of approximately 1.6-1.8 tonnes per hectare.
The US agency said the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) developed the BARI soybean-5 and BARI soybean-6 varieties.
However, limited seed supply constrains cultivation, it added.
The Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) and Bangladesh Agricultural University also released several high yielding soybean varieties, but planting is still limited.