Exporters left in the lurch

Kawsar Ahmed Sumon took 1,500 kilograms of vegetables and betel leaves to the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on March 25 to export those to Saudi Arabia.

But he missed the flight due to lengthy cargo screening process and eventually had to sell the perishable goods in a local market for a quarter of the price.

"The Biman flight was scheduled to depart at 1:30am on Friday [March 25]. As per the rules, I took the goods at the airport six hours before that. But the screening was not yet done when the flight departed," the vegetable exporter told The Daily Star.

The goods were valued at more than $6,000, he said.

"Their quality was falling with time. Having found no other way, I sold the goods in the city's Shyambazar wholesale kitchen market at 75 percent discount," said Sumon, whose Maisha Trade International started the business just two years ago.

His case is one of the many examples of shipment failures at the Dhaka airport due to the time-consuming physical screening of goods.

Strict screening measures were put in place at the Shahjalal airport on March 21 after the UK government on March 8 imposed a ban on direct cargo flights from Dhaka citing lapses in cargo screening at  the airport.

Exporter Sumon thinks the consequences can be dangerous, especially because the buyers may start looking for alternative sources.

"Now that I missed the supply deadline, I am worried whether or not my Saudi buyers would again place orders for me.

"Usually, I export perishable goods worth $2 lakh every month. But given the latest situation, I don't think I can go even close to that ... Now I am mostly sitting idle at my office," he added.

Betel leaves and green chillies following a shipment failure at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. Photo: Collected

Mosharraf Hossain is the owner of Excelsior Cargo Agent that was working at the airport as the Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) agent for Sumon's goods on March 25.

"That night, a total of 2,300kgs of perishable goods handled by my company could not be shipped ... A lot of shipments like these are offloaded as flights are missed due to the screening delays," he said.

"The quality of the perishable goods falls due to the delay. So, the exporters have a lot to lose here," he added.

Only four scanners are there to screen more than 800 tonnes of goods every day, which is mainly blamed for the delay in the shipping process.

Previously, it took 17-18 hours for the shipments to arrive at the airport and to reach any European destinations. But now, it takes nearly two days as flights are often missed due to time "wasted" in screening, said many of around 200 exporters who send perishable goods to different countries from Bangladesh.

"It now takes about three hours to screen the cargo of one exporter, which was possible in 20-30 minutes previously," said Foyez Ahmed, a perishable goods exporter and C&F agent.

Fish wrapped in cartons being screened prior to their export. Time-consuming physical screening of goods by a British company and the poorly-skilled staff of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines are causing such shipment failures at the airport. The photos were taken on Tuesday and Wednesday night. Photo: Collected

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said his ministry had already floated tender for importing a few more cargo scanners.

"Importing those will take time," he told The Daily Star over the phone, declining to say exactly how long it all may take.

The exporters also complained that they are facing space crisis in shipping goods to the UK in flights operated by foreign airlines.

Before March 8, the national flag carrier Biman used to carry a big chunk of the export items from Dhaka to the UK, a major hub of vegetable export in Europe.

But now, the cargo flights are going through re-screening in a third country. The airports in Dubai, Qatar, Hong Kong and Bangkok are mostly used for that.

So, the exporters have to wait twice for their goods to be screened -- first at the Shahjalal airport and then at another one in some other countries.

"With the ban [on direct cargo flights], we need an additional day for exporting goods to the UK. This causes at least 20 percent quality loss of the goods," said Khaledur Rahman, proprietor of Khaled Trade Syndicate.

Before the ban, Bangladesh used to export 80-100 tonnes of vegetables and fruits to the UK every day but it now has come down to 50-70 tonnes, he said.

"I myself used to export 20 tonnes a month. But it has significantly declined now," said Khaledur.

In February, 2,135 tonnes of vegetables and fruits out of 12,993 tonnes were exported by air but the quantity was falling drastically due to the lengthy screening process.

Every day, a total of 200-300 tonnes of cargo cannot be shipped from the airport due to the delays, said Mahbubul Anam, president of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders' Association. "We are going through a critical time."

Mohammed Mansur, general secretary of Bangladesh Fruits, Vegetables & Allied Products Exporters' Association, said, "Though the airlines have not yet started charging us for the re-screening of goods in a third country, we are worried about the fact that the quality of goods falls due to the delays in screening.

"Previously, perishable goods were screened on a priority basis, but not anymore. I myself missed a shipment of 4.5 tonnes of vegetables worth $13,000 to Qatar yesterday due to the delay."

Though his shipment arrived at the Shahjalal airport at 12:00am, it missed the 7:40am flight as screening had not yet been completed, he said. "I then sold the goods at a throwaway price in Shyambazar."