Bangladesh’s agarwood-based perfume industry is struggling to bounce back from the Covid-19 fallouts as traders from the Middle East are yet to resume making purchases in full swing, leaving perfumers and raw material suppliers in the lurch.
The production of Agar-atar is mainly a Middle Eastern business, according to Majid. But I sent very little last year as the demand had been reduced by as much as 25 per cent, he said. It is also uncertain when the situation will return to normal. I have unsold products worth around Tk 7-8 lakh. I stopped the production as it is still left unsold. So, workers will have to be paid the cost of production but if it is not sold, the loss will be multiplied. In my factory, there were 10-12 people who used to do agar wood finishing work. Big traders are at a higher loss as many of them have unsold agar-atar worth crores of taka, he added.