Livestock

Nowadays poultry is the biggest livestock sector in Bangladesh. The local variety of chickens being less productive in respect of meat and egg production, there has been tendency to establish poultry farms, small or large, having improved varieties of poultry birds. These include breeds like White Leghorn, Rhode Island Red, Plymouth Rock, Assel, Winedot, HiSex etc. Compared to local forms these birds are larger and may gain a weight upto 4 kg. Those imported breed can lay upto 250 eggs per year.

Phenix group is a pioneer in poultry industry in Bangladesh. Since its beginning back in 1976, its poultry farm is one of the largest farms in Bangladesh. Later on Phenix hatchery was established supply the baby chicks in local market. Together Phenix Poultry and Phenix Hatchery is one of the largest supplier in local market and contributing significantly in the GDP of poultry sector of the country.

Aqua Culture

Agriculture

MNCs
Although a number of MNCs are operational in Bangladesh market, no MNCs are in the top ten in terms of domestic sales. Out of the top fifteen pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh, only two players are MNCs. Among the MNCs, Sanofi has the highest market share while Novartis has the highest growth as of 2014.

Backward integration
Due to lack of backward integration, the sector is at a competitive disadvantage, as pharmaceutical players still have to import 90% of raw materials from 98 indenters around the world. Most APIs or their raw materials have to be imported from countries like China, India, Korea & Italy. This generates higher factor costs which can be up to 30-40% of the cost of medicine. The API Park which was supposed to be established has been delayed due to various problems like rise in production cost, slow gas connection and slow handover. The manufacturers are also concerned about their capability to shift their entire production in the API Park. For many APIs, The domestic market is too small to justify an API manufacturing plant other than the reduction of cost. Although the companies have the technical knowledge to produce APIs, there is not enough demand in the market. This means that once the API Park is established, we would need to export the additional products abroad. Export channels need to be set up now.

According to the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), all signatories are bound to incorporate 20 year product patent protection for pharmaceutical products in their domestic legislation. Currently, total 48 LDCs, including Bangladesh, are not obliged to enact legislation on product patent rights till 2016. TRIPS provided Bangladesh pharmaceutical firms with patent free production rights domestically until 2016 and limited exporting advantage. A major challenge to the current scenario could have been the expiry of the agreement. But on November 6, 2015, the TRIPs council meeting approved extension of the transition period for pharmaceutical products for least developed countries till 2032. Bangladesh secured additional protection for LDCs, including additional waiver as well as the previous waiver.

Future Prospect

The ability of the Bangladeshi drug industry to manufacture drugs for all kinds of needs is beyond doubt. While some manufacturers are already able to produce world class quality drugs, others would require considerable assistance to be able to reach that target. Bangladesh is a natural candidate to supplement or substitute other international manufacturers to the developing country markets of both finished drugs and APIs. In order to maximize growth, the pharmaceutical players need to set their sight in the global market. ProVax Pharmaceuticals Ltd (PBBL) is on the track of being a competent supplier of veterinary medicines in local market. Along with the industry PBBL will keep growing over next years and aims to make a strong position in the market.

Building Materials

Bio-energy

Different types of waste have huge potential to be used as energy source and this is why waste materials are now treated as resources. Apart from solar power, one of the most abundant source of renewable energy is animal waste from farms. Most promising among the farm wastes are poultry litter. Because growth in livestock production in both developed and developing countries are led by poultry litters. Poultry litters consists of bedding materials mixed with manure, feathers, spilled water and waste feed accumulated during the production cycle. The bedding material primarily have high carbon content biomass and this contributes to the energy content of litter. High plant material derived nutrients are rich in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Anaerobic digestion of poultry litters and wastes in biogas digesters leads in generation of biogas which contains approximately 60% methane gas and 38% carbon dioxide. Methane can be directly burnt for heat or used as fuel for internal combustion engine to generate electricity. In this way poultry litter can be managed in a very cost effective and environment friendly way. This farm scale “litter to energy” scheme has tremendous environmental, societal and economic impact.

Phenix Poultry Ltd has incorporated this “litter to energy” strategy and successfully implemented it. Phenix Green Energy Ltd is now generating approximately half a MW (~500 kW) of electricity by using gas fed generators. All the required Biogas is generated from litter and wastes from Phenix Poultry Ltd. This much electricity enabled our farm largely reducing the dependence of national grid electric supply which comes from fossil fuel. We are developing our capacity and this is not far away from today when our farms will be self-sustainable with green energy and also supply green energy to national grid.