Pran-RFL Group, a leading food company of the country, yesterday signed three separate export agreements worth $ 3.5 million with 3 Saudi and Jordanian firms.

Under the agreements, Saudi Arabia-based BR Marzooq Al Harbi Al Moulid Trading Est and Al-Qusour Al-Fakhirah Trading Est will import Pran food products worth $ 2 million and $ 1 million respectively in the next one year, while Jordan-based Lanka Rose Co will import products worth $ 5 million during the same time.

This is for the first time an importing agency of Jordan inked such a deal with a Bangladeshi company, officials of Pran said at the signing ceremony in Dhaka.

Pran is the first successful company that exports food items to more than 70 countries of the world, Hasan Mahbub, chief of export of the Pran-RFL Group, said.

“We make very quality products and some EU countries, who ensure the quality strictly before any import, also import our products,” he said.

According to the company, Pran exported food items worth Tk 0.75 billion last fiscal. Of the total amount of its exports, around 30 per cent goes to India, 30 percent to the Middle East, 30 per cent to Africa and another 10 per cent to other countries. About the potential export market of food items, the Pran official said considering India as the largest food market, Pran is eyeing export of foods worth Tk 8 billion a year.

The local foods producing company also eyes Tk 2.50 crore yearly export to Africa in near future.

The country’s agro processed foods have been showing huge export growth in recent years. According to Export Promotion Bureau, the sector showed 68.64 per cent growth in the first two months of the current fiscal, earning $ 7.96 million.

In the FY 2006-07, the sector earned $ 22.94 million marking a 119 per cent growth over the previous fiscal.