Imported fruits are now available in all towns and villages of the country. The fruit market has expanded to an extent that you can shop for a variety of exotic fruits even from roadside vendors.
When the price seems reasonable, consumers can pick the imported fruits along with the local ones.
Every day on an average, around 1.68 million kilograms of exotic fruit is consumed in Bangladesh while the retail transactions are estimated at around Tk 270 million, according to import data.
Imported fruit sales dominate the market during September-January, when the supply of local fruits falls.
Emeritus professor MA Sattar Mandal, teacher of agriculture economy at Bangladesh Agricultural University, thinks that there is positive change in people’s purchasing power and food habits. “Growing awareness about nutrition has also influenced the demand for fruit,” he said.
He praised the fruit importers, horticulture researchers and local farmers of exotic fruits for turning the fruit market vibrant.
In the last fiscal, 616,000 tonnes of fruit were imported. Among these, 77 per cent were apples and malta.
According to updates of the US Department of Agriculture, Bangladesh is the 3rd and 6th largest importers of apple and malta respectively.
Bangladesh Fresh Fruit Importers Association president Selimul Haque Esha told Prothom Alo that Bangladesh imports fruits which are not cultivated locally.
“Guava used to be imported from Thailand. As the market of locally produced guava expanded, Bangladesh stopped importing guava,” he says.
Nine years ago, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) considered apples, oranges and pears as luxury items because of import.
To discourage consumption of luxury items, Bangladesh government imposed duty and tax on fruit import. Traders still have to pay more than 89 per cent of the fruit price during import. Ultimately, the consumers have to bear the burden. But the demand of imported fruits is growing.
According to Bangladesh Bank, fruits worth Tk 25.5 million, equivalent to USD 300 million [USD1=Tk 85], were imported in the 2019-20 fiscal.
Among the imported fruits, 94 per cent came from China, India, South Africa, Egypt, Bhutan and Brazil. The rest were imported from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan and some other countries.
It has been presumed that the retail market size of fruits in Bangladesh is around Tk 100 billion.
