File photo.
The Daily Morning Sun Online //

Bangladesh has bought 25,000 tons of high-quality sugar from Pakistan. This sugar is scheduled to reach Bangladesh from Karachi port via Chittagong port next month.

After several decades, Dhaka bought such a large amount of sugar from Islamabad. Earlier, Bangladesh used to buy sugar mostly from India. Now, Dhaka is buying this essential daily commodity from Pakistan as well as India.

This was reported by The News International in a report on Tuesday (December 3).

It said that Pakistan is sending sugar to its brotherly country Bangladesh in such a large quantity after many decades. Meanwhile, the price of sugar in the international market reached $530 per ton on Monday (December 2).

This year, with the approval of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan plans to export about 600,000 tons of sugar. Of this, Thailand has bought 50,000 tons of sugar.

According to Pakistani sugar trader Majid Malik, Gulf states, Arab countries and African countries have also signed agreements to buy sugar from Pakistan. According to the plan, Pakistan will earn $400-500 million by exporting sugar. Pakistan’s sugar industry has become one of the country’s largest foreign exchange earners.

Bangladesh and Pakistan have had a complex and sometimes tense relationship. Trade between the two countries has been limited for decades due to political and historical animosity, but it has not been completely stopped. However, the new purchases indicate a change in the direction of improving bilateral trade relations.

Bangladesh has not had any direct container shipping services in its trade with Pakistan for a long time. However, cargo ships from Pakistan arrived directly at the Chittagong port last November.

According to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), goods worth $744.5 million were imported from Pakistan in the last fiscal year. And in the fiscal year 2021-22, the cost of importing goods from Pakistan at that time was $800 million.