Dried mango, a popular product in international markets, is now being made in Shibganj, Chapainawabganj. Local entrepreneur Ismail Khan Shamim is turning the distinctive Ashwina mango into dried mango through a modern process, raising the value of the fruit and opening new economic opportunities. Farmers and entrepreneurs alike see a new hope for the rural economy.

Shamim, of Khanpara in Shibganj municipality, comes from a mango-trading family and also campaigns for ordinary growers' demands. After two years of effort, he has succeeded in making Thai-style dried mango. He first saw dried mango in Thailand in 2022 and liked it. Back home, with the support of the foreign organisation Swisscontact, he set up dried-mango processing equipment in his own orchard. He now makes more than one maund of dried mango a day from Ashwina mangoes.

He said about 60 per cent of the season's mangoes ripen, fall from the trees and go to waste, and processing locally grown mangoes will benefit growers.

Worker Akalu said the mangoes are picked, washed well and peeled, then cut into thin slices and put into a modern drying machine. Each slice is dried for several hours under controlled heat and airflow, and the result is very tasty.

Alamin Ali, LAD officer of Swisscontact in Shibganj, said dried mango is very popular worldwide and they want to spread the product in Bangladesh to develop the local economy and benefit growers. Munjer Alam Manik, general secretary of the Chapainawabganj Agriculture Association, said such products would raise the price of low-value mangoes, but processing needs government support.

Dr Md Yasin Ali, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Chapainawabganj, said the district is focusing on mango processing and advising new entrepreneurs, and spreading dried mango would boost the district's economy.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Sohan Mahmud). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.