The market of exported pharmaceuticals products from Bangladesh is expanding day by day. By diversifying the export, pharmaceutical products from Bangladesh is being exported to 131 countries of Asia-Pacific region, Europe, America, Australia and Africa. According to the experts of this sector, the pharmaceuticals manufacturers of the country are not only exporting their products to South Asian Countries like Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, but also doing it in the USA, which is the largest economy of the world.
According to the information of Export Promotion Bureau, in last fiscal year (2022-23), a total of pharmaceutical products of USD 17 crore 54 lakh were exported from the country, among which only in the market of USA, pharmaceuticals of USD 1 crore and 52 lakh has been exported. The largest lot of medicines export sent in the year was to Myanmar, which was of USD 2 crore 58 lakh. Export to Sri Lanka is in second place, which was of USD 2 crore 19 lakh.
From the analysis of information, it has been found that after Myanmar and Sri Lanka, among the largest importers of BD pharmaceuticals products, there’re US, Philippines, Afghanistan, Kenya, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Nigeria, Denmark, Somalia and Australia. Despite, the quantity of export is not increasing as per expectation, the local manufacturers have been diversifying there market worldwide.
In the fiscal year 2022-23, the export amount was 17 crore 54 lakh million dollars, but in the previous fiscal year 2021-22, the export amount was 18 crore 87 lakh dollars. A senior official of a pharmaceutical company, who did not wanted to be named, said that just two decades ago, Bangladesh's pharmaceutical export market was in less than 30 countries. Now it has expanded to more than 130 destinations. They are trying to expand their market to different destinations including America and Europe. He also said, "We have a good market in Southeast Asia, Africa and the United States. Now we are trying to expand to South America. South American market is still important for pharmaceutical products of Bangladesh. The country's pharmaceutical companies are now working to enter the Latin American market. Two companies have already received export certificates from Brazil. They expect Bangladesh's market diversification to continue and increase the country's total exports in the coming years.”
Market analysts said Bangladesh has a huge potential to expand the pharmaceutical market in various countries in Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia and Latin America. The government should support the private sector to widen and diversify the pharmaceutical market by providing more policy and financial support to increase the country's overall foreign-exchange earnings.
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on August 4 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque
