The impact of the Red Sea crisis on the trade of Bangladesh

The goods imported from around 32 western countries including the European Union, America, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, etc., come to the Bay of Bengal through the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. One country on this itinerary is Yemen, where a group of Houthi rebels are at war with their country's government.

Recently, these Houthi rebels have been harassing ships traveling in the Red Sea in various ways. As a result, for the sake of safety, the ships have to avoid the Red Sea and take an alternative route.

The impact of this crisis is directly affecting the trade of the country. The price of the product is increasing due to the higher cost and time taken for transportation.

The Bangladeshi-flagged vessel 'MV Meghna Adventure', carrying soybean seeds from the United States, arrived at Chittagong port after 53 days of Uttamasha Antareep in Africa, bypassing the Red Sea. It took at least five to six days more to cover the additional one and a half thousand nautical miles.

The chairman of Meghna Group of Industries, the owner of the ship, Mustafa Kamal said, "Every day there is a fixed operating cost of 10 to 12 thousand dollars just for operating the ship. There is an additional cost to be paid for the detour. This additional cost is added to the import price of the product. It has increased the cost from 30 to 35 dollars per ton.

Since the ships have to go and come through the same route. Therefore, this additional cost has increased in exports as well as imports. Businessmen also said that entrepreneurs need to focus on importing products from alternative sources easily and at low cost to deal with the impact.

It is to be noted that due to the impact of the Red Sea crisis, the products which are imported through the said route are about 4 and a half percent of the country's total import products in terms of quantity. It is 8 percent of the product price.