Byron Bay Chilli Co. does huge international deal
Australian regional food manufacturer, Byron Bay Chilli Co, has launched in Bangladesh under licence, six varieties of its best-known sauces.
Demand for high-quality chilli sauces has boomed across Bangladesh and parts of Western Asia and the Middle East to where the largest Bangladeshi factories have been exporting.
In 2015 the two-way trade between Australia and Bangladesh was worth AUD $1.87 billion. Australia’s exports to Bangladesh, mainly pulses, fertilisers and wheat, were worth AUD $688 million.
Other Australian sauce and salsa products are already exported to Bangladesh, but under the new licensing production agreement by Byron Bay Chilli Co to PRAN Agro Ltd, Bangladesh’s largest processed food conglomerate, the latter will produce the sauces at its factory in Natore.
This is the first agreement of its kind to produce food in Bangladesh using Australian recipes, technology and branding.
Byron Bay Chilli Ltd expects the licensing agreement to give it an edge in the market and there is potential for the sauces to be exported from Bangladesh to the Middle East and neighbouring South Asian markets such as Nepal, Bhutan, and the north-eastern states of India.
The growing middle class in Bangladesh now numbers approximately 30 million and is developing as a significant consumer market for high-quality food products.
Australia has long been a supplier of food to communities in Bangladesh, helping to make up shortfalls in local production, but the middle-class market is now maturing.
The demand by the middle class for innovative, international food brands is expected to open other opportunities for other Australian brands and foods such as fresh juice, jam, honey, cereals, dairy and pasta.
