Sylhet looks to new prospects in vegetable and citrus exports with a cold storage initiative
An initiative has been taken to build a cold storage facility in Sylhet, raising hopes of new prospects for exporting vegetables and citrus fruits from the region, according to an Ekhan TV report.
With cold storage, farm produce can be preserved for a long time after harvest. For perishable goods such as vegetables and fruit, the absence of preservation forces growers to sell immediately after harvest, often at low prices, while much of the produce risks going to waste.
Citrus fruits include oranges and lemon-family fruits. Many farmers in the Sylhet region are involved in cultivating such fruits. If the produce can be stored, it can be released to the market in phases and planned shipments to distant markets or abroad become easier.
Maintaining quality is one of the biggest conditions for exports. Keeping produce fresh from harvest until it reaches the buyer is where cold storage plays a crucial role, agriculture stakeholders say.
If the cold storage initiative is implemented, farmers in Sylhet could be relieved of the pressure to dump all their produce on the market at once during harvest season. Storage allows them to hold produce when prices fall and sell later.
The same logic applies to vegetable exports. Alongside the domestic market, sending vegetables abroad requires continuity of supply, and preservation infrastructure is essential for that continuity.
The initiative, however, is still at an early stage of reporting. Where the cold storage will be built, what its capacity will be, who will operate it and when construction might begin — none of these details is known yet.
Such infrastructure has long been in demand in Sylhet Division's agricultural economy. Farmers in districts including Moulvibazar, Habiganj and Sunamganj often complain that vegetables and fruits produced in the division fail to fetch desired prices for want of storage facilities.
If the export-oriented initiative succeeds, its benefits would not be limited to big traders — markets for produce grown by marginal farmers could also expand. But that will require building the entire system of collection, quality control and transport together.
It remains to be seen how quickly the announced initiative takes real shape. Once official details emerge on the site, financing and timeline, the picture of expectations among Sylhet's farmers and traders will become clearer.
