The Commerce Ministry has cancelled the licence of the Bangladesh Agrochemical Manufacturers Association (Bama), four years after granting it, and ordered the manufacturers’ organisation to merge with the Bangladesh Crop Protection Association, the trade body representing agrochemical importers.
Before agrochemical manufacturing began in Bangladesh, both importers and manufacturers were members of the Bangladesh Crop Protection Association. After some members started local production, they applied for a separate trade body and received a licence for Bama in August 2022. Bama currently has 22 members.
The two groups have been at odds for the past three years, with Bama raising concerns with the relevant ministries over regulations it said favoured importers.
The government subsequently reduced duties and taxes on imported agrochemical raw materials in the current fiscal year and scrapped the “single country, single source” requirement for such imports under the import policy order.
In a gazette issued on 9 September, the Commerce Ministry said most Bama members had previously belonged to the Crop Protection Association and many remained its members. It said the two organisations had similar objectives and that multiple bodies in the same sector were creating obstacles to the import, production, distribution and marketing of pesticides.
A single organisation representing those involved in the pesticide trade was therefore considered appropriate, it said.
Bama President Mostafizur Rahman protested the decision, saying importers and manufacturers could not operate under one association.
“The Crop Protection Association is essentially an organisation of importers. In the past, it opposed local agrochemical production and encouraged imports,” he told The Business Standard.
“Importers will never encourage local production at the expense of their own business. So merging manufacturers and importers into a single organisation is not logical,” he said, adding that a review of Sections 5 and 8 of the Trade Organisations Act would show whether the ministry’s gazette was lawful.
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