Bdbusinessdaily.com – Bangladesh’s sea-borne potato trade has been cut roughly in half within a single fiscal year, a sharp contraction driven by the surge in ocean-freight prices triggered by the ongoing war in the Middle East. The disruption has rendered long-haul agricultural shipments economically unviable for many exporters, squeezing margins to the point where containers simply stop moving.

Figures compiled by the Plant Quarantine Centre at Chattogram Port show that potato volumes shipped through the country’s principal seaport dropped by 19,939 tonnes on a year-on-year basis — a 49 per cent plunge. In fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25), Bangladesh dispatched 40,543 tonnes of potatoes via Chattogram. That figure collapsed to just 20,604 tonnes in FY26. The corresponding foreign-exchange receipts, tracked by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), fell from $14.30 million to $8.89 million, a loss of $5.41 million or 37.8 per cent in a single year.…