Like many other third-world countries, Bangladesh relies quite heavily on exports to provide for the needs of its densely populated nation. Currently Bangladesh’s main export items are garments, jute and jute-related goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood. The majority of the country’s trade is conducted with the USA but a small portion of exports also sees its way to Germany, the UK, France and Italy.
List - Export Products of Bangladesh:
- Bicycle
- Ceramic Products
- Food Products
- Frozen Fish
- Fruits
- Garment Products
- Leather & Leather Goods
- Vegetables
- ICT Products
- Handicrafts
- Woven Garments
- Knitwear
- Tea or Tea Products
- Potteries
- Ship building
- Medicine Products
- Home Textiles
- Jute and Jute Products
Before exporting goods from Bangladesh’s you should ensure that they do not fall into the category of prohibited goods. Prohibited goods cannot be exported, imported, transited, sold or circulated in Bangladesh. Among prohibited goods are weapons, narcotics, psychotropic substances and hazardous chemical substances. You should refer to the specific laws and regulations that cover these prohibitions. As per Export Policy 2015-2018, the list of Export-Prohibited Products are:
- Soyabean Oil, Palm Oil
- All petroleum and petroleum products except those produced from natural gas (such as naphtha, furnace oil, lubricant oil, bitumen, condensate, MTT and MS)
- Jute and `Shan’ seeds;
- Wheat
- Rice (Except G2G - Government to Government and Aromatic Rice)
- As per the article 29 of Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012, No person shall export or re-export any wild animal or parts thereof, trophy, uncured trophy, or plants mentioned in schedule IV or parts or derivatives thereof
- Fire arms, ammunition and related materials
- Radioactive materials
- Archeological relics
- Human skeleton, blood plasma, or anything produced from human beings or human blood
- All types of pulses (except processed pulses)
- All shrimps except chilled, frozen and processed ones
- Onion, Garlic and Ginger
- Seawater shrimps of 71/90 count or smaller, except the species harina and Chaka including sea species PUD, Cooked shrimp
- Cane, wood, wood logs/ thick pieces of wood (except handicrafts made from these materials). But the Rubber wood of Forest Industries Development Corporation can be exported as the element of furniture of export processing area
- All types of frogs (alive or dead) and frog legs
- Raw and wet blue leather
As per Export Policy 2015-2018, list of Products under Conditional Export are:
- Urea Fertilizer: Urea fertilizer produced in all factories except KAFCO can be exported with the prior approval of the Ministry of Industries
- Entertainment programs, music, drama, films, documentary films etc can be exported in the form of audio cassettes, video cassettes, CDs, DVDs etc subject to ‘no objection’ from the Ministry of Information
- Petroleum and petroleum products produced from natural gas (such as naphtha, furnace oil, bitumen, condensate, MTT and MS) can be exported under ‘no objection’ from the Energy and Mineral Resources Division. However, lubricating oil exportable or prohibited can be exported unconditionally under intimation to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division about the amount of export
- Chemical products enlisted in schedules 1, 2, 3 of Chemical Weapons (Control) Act-2006 will be exportable or prohibited export as per the provision of section-9 of the Act
- Sugar
- Hilsha (Ilish) Fish
- Aromatic Rice (Subject to the prior approval of Ministry of Commerce)
- Raw meat and skin of Crocodile produced in personal or joint venture Farms (Ministry of Commerce will issue the approval letter Subject to the No Objection Certificate (NoC) of Ministry of Environment & Forests
As per the information’s provided on the website of Bangladesh Trade Portal, steps in exporting products from Bangladesh are:
- Selection of products
- Collection and Analysis of data on export market
- Collection of Buyers’ List
- Correspondence with Buyers
- Making samples as per buyer’s requirement
- Price Negotiation
- Conclusion of Deed
- Export Finance
- Manufacturing of Products
- Shipment of Goods
- Registration / Enrollment Requirement
- Repatriation of sales proceeds