Expert Urges Cold Storage and Year-Round Fruit Output to Boost Processing

Bangladesh needs to put storage, technology and year-round production at the centre of its fruit processing effort, fruit expert Dr. Md. Mehedi Masud, former director of the Year-Round Fruit Production Project, said on the morning of Saturday, 27 June 2026. He was speaking at a roundtable titled "Fruit Processing: Problems and Prospects" at the Jagonews24 office in Badda, Dhaka, moderated by the outlet's editor, K. M. Zeaul Haque.

According to Dr. Masud, Bangladesh produces about 15.2 million tonnes of fruit a year, but 65 percent of it is harvested in just four months. The rest of the year brings a shortage of local fruit, and this seasonal pattern, he said, creates major problems for storage, processing and export.

In December 2022 The Daily Star wrote that imported fruit dominates sales from September to January because domestically grown fruit is in short supply over that period. In September 2022 The Business Standard noted that the mango market traditionally lasts until July, with Ashina mangoes arriving in August once the sweet varieties of Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi have run out.

One report puts the value of fruit lost each year at about Tk 2,000 crore, but Dr. Masud said the real loss is much larger. By his reckoning, if about 5 million tonnes are lost at an average price of Tk 50 a kilogram, the loss is at least Tk 25,000 crore; at Tk 100 a kilogram it approaches Tk 50,000 crore.

Saving and processing the fruit that goes to waste every year would do more for the economy than planting new orchards, he argued. For that, he said, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have to come forward into fruit processing, and the government has to give them the support they need.

He named the shortage of cold storage as the biggest obstacle for entrepreneurs, many of whom lack adequate facilities to hold fruit before export. If the government ensured modern storage, he said, entrepreneurs could store and export far more fruit.

Drawing on a dozen years of work on year-round fruit projects, Dr. Masud said technology and good management make off-season production possible for many fruits. He cited Katimon mango, now produced all year: a mango that sells for Tk 100 a kilogram in season fetches Tk 500 off-season, multiplying farmers' income. The Business Standard had reported in 2022 that some orchards were experimenting with BARI Aam-11 and Katimon, which fruit all year round, and that BARI Aam-11 is the only year-round mango released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI).

He also described efforts to stretch the litchi season. Rambutan and longan, relatives of litchi, are now grown commercially in several regions after the litchi harvest ends, extending the supply of litchi-type fruit by several months. All three belong to the soapberry family, Sapindaceae.

Jackfruit, Dr. Masud said, has the greatest potential for year-round production. If Vietnam's year-round jackfruit variety were expanded in Bangladesh, the fruit could be exported throughout the year. He added that unripe jackfruit is in strong demand abroad and had been seen selling in New York supermarkets for the equivalent of about Tk 1,500 a kilogram.

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), a member of the mulberry family Moraceae, is the national fruit of Bangladesh. At home the unripe fruit is cooked as a vegetable, and abroad canned young jackfruit is marketed as a meat alternative.

Other speakers included agricultural economist Dr. Jahangir Alam Khan, former vice-chancellor of the University of Global Village; Dr. Md. Golam Ferdous Chowdhury, chief scientific officer of BARI's Postharvest Technology Division; Mohammad Arifur Rahman, director of the Department of Agricultural Extension's exportable mango production project; BSTI deputy director (food and agriculture) Enamul Haque; PRAN Group managing director Elias Mridha; Hashem Foods managing director Md. Abul Hashem; former BAPA general secretary Md. Iktadul Haque; CAB vice president S. M. Nazer Hossain; Kaju and Coffee Agro executive director Md. Mahatab Ali; and agri-entrepreneurs Ismail Khan Shamim of Chapainawabganj and Sohel Rana of Naogaon.

Photo: Hasan Iqbal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, The Daily Star, The Business Standard, Wikipedia