Dhaka: Despite fertilizer prices recently coming down in Burma, Bangladeshi traders continue to export fertilizer products to Burma illegally through the sea route.

On January 10, the Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested a fertilizer smuggler in possession of 400 sacks of fertilizers, as he was attempting to enter Burmese territory with the contraband in three trawlers.

According to an official, "A regular patrol team of the coast guard chased and seized the three trawlers loaded with 400 sacks of urea fertilizers on the Boleshwar River. At the scene they arrested one smuggler, 45-year old Habibullah, while the other smugglers jumped into the river and fled."

Since the Burmese government has not provided the necessary fertilizers to Burmese farmers in the country, they have been using and depending on smuggled fertilizers from Bangladesh to cultivate their crops.

A businessman from the border said, "The smuggled fertilizers are being exported by Bangladeshi businessmen to Burma, even though the price of fertilizers is declining in Burma by the day. The decreasing prices in Burma, are still double of what the fertilizers would fetch in Bangladesh's markets."

In the fertilizer markets of Sittwe, the capital of Arakan State, a sack of fertilizer was 40,000 Kyat in the past, but is currently at 28,000 Kyat.

In the Bangladeshi market, a sack of standard urea fertilizer is only 500 Taka, or 8,000 kyat.

The Bangladeshi authorities have been cracking down on fertilizer smuggling to Burma, but the trade continues due to the potential for high profits if the contraband makes it through to Burmese territory.