The cargo village at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) is failing to accommodate the rising volume of export-bound goods, piling up losses on suppliers as they are struggling to ship merchandises on time.

The cargo village has a daily storage capacity of 400 tonnes of dry cargo, way lower than 1,200 tonnes arriving at the country’s largest airport to be shipped through national and international airlines.

About 800 tonnes of goods are exported through the air routes every day.

Due to the space crisis, exporters are forced to store goods outside of the village. But the goods there are left unattended. As a result, their quality risks deterioration. Thefts are also rising alarmingly.

“During normal times, we can smoothly ship around 400 tonnes of cargoes. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the capacity has shrunk due to suspension of many flights,” said the managing director of a chartered flight operator of cargoes from the HSIA, asking not to be named.

“The situation is not improving,” said Shahidullah Azim, vice-president of the BGMEA.

Of the cargoes transported by airlines, 85 per cent are garment items.

M Mafidur Rahman, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, said a separate cargo village was under construction at the HSIA, having 63,000 square metres of areas for storing export-bound and imported cargoes.

“By the end of 2025, the new cargo village will go into operations,” he said.

The expansion will increase the airport’s annual cargo handling capacity from 200,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.

The space shortage at the cargo village is not the only problem haunting exporters. Because of the lack of an adequate number of scanning facilities, suppliers can’t ship goods on time.

SM Masum Hossain, managing director of Rider Cargo Ltd, says the only operational Explosive Detective System (EDS) scanning machine is not enough to scan exportable goods.

With the current flow of goods, at least four machines are needed.

Two EDS were in operations as of June this year. But, one has not been functioning since then, he said.

Since the shipping fares have risen three folds owing to the container shortage globally, exporters prefer air shipments. As a result, the demand for scanning at the HSIA has increased.

The HSIA needs at least three unit load devices (ULDs) at the three entry points of the cargo village to run explosive tests in containers. The installation of the ULDs can solve 40 per cent of the existing problem, according to Hossain.

Exporters face an additional delay of eight days because of the lower scanning capacity, said BGMEA’s Azim.

“The eight-day delay in air shipment is unimaginable,” he said, adding that sometimes, the only active EDS went out of service.

Even if a cargo carrier is hired at the cost of $1 lakh, it can carry 70 per cent of the goods planned. This is because the rest of the items can’t be loaded onto the flight as they are not scanned on time, according to Azim.

BGMEA leaders visited the cargo village on Wednesday, along with Salman F Rahman, adviser to the prime minister on private industry and investment.

The adviser expressed dissatisfaction over the haphazard situation at the cargo village and the EDS scanning facility.

Nurul Amin, a director of the Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association, says flights leave the airport without goods as scanning could not be carried out timely.

Some flights depart even without taking 25 per cent of the cargoes booked, according to users.

From Bangladesh, about 50 per cent of goods shipped through airlines are Europe-bound, but the dog squad can scan a maximum of 110 tonnes a day.

Europe-bound cargoes need to be scanned either by the EDS or the dog squad. “But the capacity of both is insufficient,” Amin added.

From the beginning of August, exports through air routes have been facing pressures as demand has risen. As a result, the freight cost has gone up by 80-100 per cent.

The cost of air shipment for garment items is $6.50 per kg for Europe, $11.50-$12.00 for the US and Canada, and $3.50 for Far-East and Middle-East. The rates are expensive, apparel exporters say.

Moreover, there is a shortage of trolleys, pallets and space in the cargo loading and unloading areas, which are also major barriers to catering the service smoothly, Amin said.

International retailers and brands are putting pressure on suppliers to dispatch goods on time as the demand for garment items has risen in the western world following the reopening from several months of strict lockdowns.

Recently, many work orders have shifted from China to Bangladesh.

“We should take advantage of the relocation of the orders by fixing the problems at airports and bonded warehouses, gas crisis and container shortage,” Azim said.