Opportunities are opening for Bangladeshi food products to be exported more widely into the European market, according to Forkan Haider Chowdhury, ambassador and adviser to United Dutch Exporters (Unidex), a Netherlands-based international food importer and distributor. The Belgian of Bangladeshi origin believes demand for Bangladeshi products in Europe will grow further if international standards are ensured, long-term business relationships are built and regular market links are increased. He said the market is currently worth more than a billion taka a year.
He said Roland Janssen founded Unidex as a small venture in 1989. Started with a fax machine in a bedroom, the company has now become one of Europe’s largest ethnic-food distribution networks. Janssen’s family had experience in the spice import-export business — his father imported spices such as bay leaf, cumin, turmeric and chilli from India to the Netherlands and exported them to Dutch territories including Suriname and Curaçao. On that experience, Unidex began operations targeting the demand among immigrants living in Europe for food products from their home countries.
The company has run two lines of business from the start: an ethnic market, supplying grocery and specialty shops of various countries, and a mainstream retail market, delivering international food products to consumers through large supermarkets and retail chains. Forkan Haider Chowdhury said he got to know Roland Janssen in the late 1990s and joined Unidex in October 2007 as “key account manager (Europe),” having earlier been CEO of another multinational; he was later made Unidex’s “director of sales” in recognition of his work. “The company’s CEO gave me full freedom of decision, which continues today,” he said. “This atmosphere of mutual trust has played an important role in expanding into new markets and building long-term business relationships.”
Unidex now sources dry food, drinks and frozen food products from various countries and supplies them across Europe, with a distribution network reaching from Helsinki to Malta. He said palm oil, palm cream, cassava and various flours are imported from Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal in West Africa, and salted fish (bacalao) from Norway and tilapia from China are marketed across Europe. On his role in promoting Bangladeshi products, he said products of Bangladeshi firms such as Pran, BD Food, Ifad and Danish had begun reaching the European market through Unidex on his initiative, and that frozen fish, various snacks and other food products are being imported regularly from Bangladesh. These products are spreading beyond Asians to Arabs, Africans and Europeans living in Europe.
He said he regularly attends the world’s leading international food exhibitions to find new suppliers — visiting the Bangladesh pavilion at Gulfood in Dubai, Anuga in Germany, SIAL in France and Thaifex in Thailand to connect with promising Bangladeshi exporters. Unidex recently merged with the Europe-based Asian Food Group to form a larger business group, greatly increasing its purchasing power, supply capacity and ability to expand across Europe, he said, opening new opportunities for producers from Bangladesh and other countries. Referring to a recent courtesy meeting with Bangladesh’s commerce minister, he said they had discussed the potential to boost exports of Bangladesh’s food and agricultural products, adding that the minister’s words reflected the current elected government’s positive attitude. He places the greatest importance on human relationships as the foundation of business success. “Business is not just about contracts or financial transactions,” he said. “Long-lasting business relationships are built on mutual respect, honesty and trust.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report