BHOPAL: In the wake of continuing attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, exporters of Mandideep Industrial Area in central Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district have decided to stop exporting to the neighbouring South Asian nation.
Currently, 27 products form the rich bouquet of exports to Bangladesh from Mandideep, including cotton, cotton yarn, tractors, pharmaceuticals, auto and rail parts, plastic and paper and steel furniture.
The entrepreneurs are poised to give an economic jolt to Bangladesh as they hope to find a much bigger and more lucrative market for their products in Russia, which is facing dearth of supplies due to European Union’s ban on direct as well as indirect exports of goods over protracted war with Ukraine.
“Bangladesh’s economy sources 70-80% of its requirements from India, if we slowly start cutting our supplies (exports) there, it will give that economy a rude jolt within 15 days only. Towards the end of 2024, we convened a meeting and decided to put an end to exports to Bangladesh which are to the tune of Rs 800 crore annually,” Dr Rajiv Agrawal, Association of All Industries, Mandideep president told this newspaper on Saturday.
Importantly, the Mandideep Industrial Area in Mandideep town of Raisen district (around 23 km from Bhopal) houses 450 industrial units of variable sizes. The annual turnover of these industries is pegged at around Rs 85,000 crore, out of which around 21% or Rs 18,000 crore is attained through exports.
Out of the Rs 18,000 crore exports from the Mandideep Industrial Area, just around 4.5% or Rs 800 crore worth exports are done annually to Bangladesh.
According to key sources in this industrial town, since the last two-three months, there were growing indications that even the importers in Bangladesh weren’t keen to export from India, including factories in Mandideep.
“Even before they would have started negating the exports, we proactively decided to stop the exports to render them a major economic jolt and instead channelize our exports to much better markets, particularly Russia,” a prominent exporter from Mandideep claimed.
With Russia becoming increasingly isolated in Europe due to the ban imposed by the EU on supplies to it and China largely benefitting by increasing its supplies there, the Mandideep industrialists saw Russia as a major scope for their future and consciously decided to end exports to Bangladesh.
“Already an industrial delegation from India had visited Russia and found that the importers there are more than willing to boost imports from India to meet their requirements, despite China already chipping in with supplies. The potential market for us isn’t just confined to Russia, but also includes some European nations as well as Asian countries, particularly the Middle East, which as of now is our major overseas partner,” Agrawal said.
“We cannot fight war with weapons for our people and national interests in Bangladesh, but we can definitely fight with them by crippling them economically, particularly when we’ve far better emerging markets, like Russia and adjoining nations ready to work with us,” he maintained.
According to sources, many other industrial bodies in MP, Chhattisgarh and even in Tamil Nadu are in contact with their counterparts in Mandideep and may make similar Bangladesh-specific announcements soon.