The country’s export basket has got a new item ‘Halal meat’ as Bengal Meat Processing Industries Limited (BMPIL) has started exporting it to the Middle East. The BMPIL, the first such industry in the country, has been exporting a limited quantity of mutton to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait for the last one month. Primarily they are exporting 1 tonne of the processed meat on average by air. The export order is increasing day by day. This firm has been negotiating with some Western and Southeast Asian countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore to export the processed meat.

But the owner of the BMPIL mentioned that lack of government support has stymied the potential export of Bangladeshi meat worth an estimated $11 billion a year. About 30 crore Muslims living in the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries depend on halaal meat imported from Australia, New Zealand, the United Sates and India.

The government needs to ensure food safety and hygiene by setting up a reference laboratory of international standards approved by the World Animal Health Organisation and to provide free vaccination for cattle in rural areas to protect them from diseases. Foot and mouth disease of cattle and goat plague are the most common infectious diseases in Bangladesh. The entrepreneurs urged the government to take up breeding programmes aimed at developing high-quality meat for local and export markets. Pointing out that about 70 per cent of the marginal farmers are involved in the rearing of cattle and goat, the investors stressed the need for government support. Revision of the Slaughter Act of 1965 is a must, the investors said, adding the law has now become obsolete and it hampers the export of meat.

The modern meat processing plant of international standards set up at a cost of Tk 40 crore at Santhia in Pabna has the capacity to process about 20 tonnes of meat a day. The production is limited to about 6 tonnes of beef and mutton because of the unavailability of cattle.