Pabna fruit prices up Tk 30-70 a kg in Ramadan, putting apples and malta out of reach

In late February 2026, about a week into Ramadan, shoppers in Pabna town were paying Tk 30 to 70 more for a kilogram of fruit than they had paid before the fasting month began, Jagonews24 reported on 26 February 2026. Apples and malta had risen the most. For many low-income families, the report said, breaking the fast with even a slice of apple or malta had become something close to impossible.

Ramadan of 1447 Hijri began in Bangladesh on Thursday, 19 February 2026. The National Moon Sighting Committee, meeting at the Islamic Foundation's conference room at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque on the evening of 18 February, confirmed that the new moon had been sighted in Netrokona, Sirajganj and Cox's Bazar districts, BSS reported. Fruit is a regular part of the iftar table in Bangladesh, and demand for it rises every Ramadan.

Jagonews24's correspondent visited fruit shops in Pabna town and spoke to buyers, shopkeepers and the district office of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection. Prices had eased slightly from the peak reached at the very start of the month, but they remained well above pre-Ramadan levels. Buyers accused sellers of raising prices on the pretext of short supply; sellers said that prices were set by the wholesale traders who supply the district, and that they themselves were selling less.

Red apples were selling at Tk 380 a kilogram. From the days before Ramadan to the start of its second day the price had climbed to Tk 400, and before Ramadan it had been Tk 340 to 350. The other imported fruits showed the same pattern. The prices the report recorded, against those before Ramadan, were:

• Fuji apples: Tk 340 a kg, up from Tk 300 before Ramadan.
• Gala apples: Tk 420 a kg, and green apples Tk 400, both having risen in the same way.
• Kinnow oranges: Tk 260 a kg, up from Tk 220.
• Mandarin oranges: Tk 350 a kg, up from Tk 320.
• Pears: Tk 440 a kg, up from Tk 350.
• Malta: Tk 340 a kg, up from Tk 300.
• Pomegranates: Tk 520 to 610 a kg depending on size, up from Tk 500 to 580; before that they had sold at Tk 350 to 400.

Among the cheaper fruits, pineapple was selling at Tk 70 a kilogram and the season's watermelon at Tk 80. At the start of Ramadan the "Jannat" watermelon had sold at Tk 100 a kilogram. Jujube (boroi or kul), which had sold at Tk 150 a kilogram up to the second day of Ramadan, had come down to Tk 100. Bananas were selling at Tk 30 to 40 a hali, a bunch of four.

Dates, the traditional food for breaking the fast, were selling at Tk 280 to 1,700 a kilogram depending on quality. From a week before Ramadan to its first day, the report said, the same dates had sold for Tk 100 to 200 more.

Grapes were the exception: their prices had fallen. Ordinary or green grapes cost Tk 400 to 420 a kilogram, down from Tk 450. Red grapes had come down from Tk 600 to Tk 550 and black grapes from Tk 600 to Tk 560.

According to the report, fruit was somewhat cheaper about two weeks before Ramadan, and prices began to climb in the week before the month started. The sharpest rise came from two days before Ramadan to its second day, when the price of a kilogram of fruit went up by Tk 50 to 100. Prices then eased a little, leaving buyers paying Tk 30 to 70 more than before Ramadan.

Pabna's experience matched what reporters found in the capital in the same days. On 19 February, the first day of Ramadan, the Dhaka Tribune found black grapes selling at Tk 600 a kilogram in Old Dhaka's fruit shops, green grapes at Tk 420, white apples at Tk 420, red apples at Tk 400, oranges at Tk 360, pears at Tk 450 and malta at Tk 360. Several customers asking about prices said that if fruit was already this dear on the first day, it might become unaffordable within a few days. An Old Dhaka fruit trader, Sattar, said wholesale prices had gone up by Tk 50 to 100 a kilogram. "We have to purchase at higher prices. We are not increasing prices ourselves," he claimed.

Two days later, on Saturday 21 February, the Dhaka Tribune reported that some fruits in the capital's markets had risen by as much as Tk 100 to 150 a kilogram. Apples were selling at Tk 380 to 440 a kilogram depending on the variety, oranges at Tk 350, pomegranates at Tk 560, pears at Tk 440, malta at Tk 300 to 350, grapes at Tk 450 and dates at Tk 600 to 700. Among local fruits, jujube cost Tk 100 to 120 a kilogram and guava Tk 130 to 150, while watermelons were scarce and priced at Tk 120 to 150 a kilogram. A trader, Jahangir, told the paper that prices were fixed at the wholesale market and that retailers could not sell at a loss. A Banasree resident, Selim, said fruit was now beyond the reach of low and lower-middle income people, and that "authorities fine traders in the morning, but by the afternoon, things return to the previous situation."

Buyers in Pabna told Jagonews24 that, with imported fruit out of ordinary people's reach, low and middle income families were turning to local fruit, but found no relief there either, because all fruit, local or imported, was dear. Even for iftar or ordinary needs, they said, they could hardly afford fruit. They called for stronger market monitoring to stop sellers from raising prices whenever an opportunity arose.

Hafiza Hasan, who was shopping at fruit shops in the town, said that after fasting all day the body needs vitamins and other nutrients, so some fruit should be kept at iftar. She had been going from shop to shop, she said, but at the prevailing prices she could not afford anything. Jujube and guava were within reach for the moment, although she felt they too were comparatively overpriced. Because she had to buy something, she said, she would reluctantly take a few apples and malta at the higher price.

Another buyer, Raisul, said fruit prices had started to rise from the week before Ramadan and had gone up steeply over the two days before it and on its first day, by as much as Tk 100 for some fruits. He accused sellers of manipulating prices on the pretext of short supply, and said that many shopkeepers hung price lists to show the administration but charged more than the listed prices. That, in his view, was how the market had moved beyond the reach of ordinary buyers, especially low-income people.

Matin, a rickshaw puller, and Azmat Sheikh, who works in a labour post at a local private company in Pabna, said that buying vegetables and other daily essentials was already a struggle: buying one thing meant going without another. Fruit, for them, was a great luxury. A single apple cost Tk 50 to 60. A rickshaw puller's income, after paying the vehicle's rent and battery charging, was at most Tk 400 a day, they said, and the job paid about Tk 500 a day. With that, they said, there was no way to break the fast with fruit even if they wanted to.

Fruit sellers gave a different account. Fazlu of Bismillah Phal Bhandar said prices had been a little higher from a few days before Ramadan to its start, and had come down somewhat since. His shop sold with a price list on display, he said, and did not overcharge.

Rafid Islam of New Pabna Phal Bhandar said high prices hurt sellers as well as buyers, because sales fall when prices rise. Sellers too wanted prices to stay at a bearable level so that everyone could come and buy fruit, he said, but such things were not in their hands.

A fruit seller who asked not to be named explained how fruit reaches Pabna. The district's fruit market depends on fruit traders in Dhaka, Sirajganj and Natore, he said. Local importers bring fruit from them and it then spreads to the shops, with most of it coming from Dhaka, so the market goes the way those traders steer it. He also said there were problems with some local importers, because outside the town, at Kashinathpur in Bera upazila and in other upazilas, prices were somewhat lower than in Pabna town.

Manju of Mayer Doa Phal Bhandar said sales had been lower than in other Ramadans. Demand rises in Ramadan while supply falls, he said, so prices go up a little at this time, and there was nothing shopkeepers could do about it. A profit of Tk 30 to 50 a kilogram, depending on the fruit, was the most they sought, he said, because fruit is perishable and 2 to 3 kilograms in every carton is spoiled on the way.

Mahmud Hasan Roni, assistant director of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection in Pabna, said many fruit traders took advantage of the extra demand in Ramadan to destabilise the market, causing hardship for buyers. To ease this, he said, his office had been monitoring markets regularly since the start of Ramadan and was imposing fines and taking other action whenever it found overcharging or other irregularities. On Wednesday, he said, drives had been carried out at fruit shops in Hajirhat and other places, and the office was doing its utmost to protect consumers' right to buy goods at fair prices.

The directorate was created under the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 (Act No. 26 of 2009, dated 6 April 2009). Section 18 of the Act provides for a Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection to support the work of the national consumer rights protection council and to carry out its decisions.

Two sections of the Act bear directly on the complaints buyers made in Pabna. Under section 38, a person who, in breach of an obligation imposed by any law or rule, fails to hang a price list of goods in an easily visible place in his shop or establishment can be punished with imprisonment of up to one year, a fine of up to Tk 50,000, or both. Under section 40, selling or offering to sell any goods, medicine or service at a price higher than the price fixed under any law or rule carries the same maximum penalty.

The Act also gives ordinary buyers a role. Under section 76, any person who is or may be a consumer can lodge a written complaint about an act against consumer rights with the directorate's director general or an officer authorised by him. The authority must look into the complaint promptly, and if it is proved, the offender can be fined administratively; 25 per cent of a fine that is collected is paid to the complainant.

Most of the fruit whose prices troubled Pabna's buyers, such as apples, oranges, malta, pears, grapes and pomegranates, is imported. A day before the Jagonews24 report, The Daily Star examined why imported fruit remained so expensive even though the country's foreign-exchange pressure had eased. Its report, in the paper's 25 February 2026 edition, said that importers still had to pay a 100 per cent cash margin to open letters of credit (LCs) for fruit, meaning they had to deposit the full value of a shipment in cash when opening the LC. Before 2022, the paper said, banks set margins according to their relationship with clients, and fruit importers could pay part of the value upfront and settle the rest later.

The 100 per cent margin was introduced as part of the central bank's import tightening in 2022, when foreign-currency reserves were falling fast. It reduced fruit imports but also pushed up retail prices, the paper said. It compared prices: a kilogram of oranges cost up to Tk 330, against about Tk 180 before the margin was raised in 2022; apples sold for Tk 280 to 400 a kilogram, against Tk 220 to 280 in 2022; grapes for Tk 450 to 600, against Tk 400 to 450; and tangerines for around Tk 320, against Tk 250 to 270.

Nuruddin Ahmed, general secretary of the Bangladesh Fresh Fruits Importers Association, told the paper that the margin placed a heavy financial burden on legitimate traders, kept many smaller traders out and reduced shipment volumes, and that classifying fruit as a luxury good was unjustified. The same 100 per cent margin, the paper noted, applied to imports such as motor cars, gold and gold jewellery, electronic appliances and processed foods. Agricultural economist Jahangir Alam Khan argued that LC margins and duties on imported fruit should be withdrawn, especially ahead of Ramadan. Fahmida Khatun of the Centre for Policy Dialogue said that, with reserves still limited, any reopening should be gradual and each item should be assessed carefully. Bankers were divided. Arief Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, said the central bank had relaxed the rules for date imports for Ramadan while restrictions on other fruits remained, and that if forex market conditions improved further the margin requirement on fruit imports would also be withdrawn.

Duties had added to the cost. The National Board of Revenue raised the regulatory duty on fruit imports from 3 to 23 per cent in May 2022 to discourage imports during the dollar shortage, The Daily Star reported in early 2023. On 9 January 2025 the NBR raised the supplementary duty on some fresh fruits, including grapes, apples and watermelons, from 20 to 30 per cent, the paper reported a few days later, when retailers in Dhaka were charging Tk 20 to 30 more for a kilogram of apples, oranges, grapes, malta and watermelons. Bangladesh Bank data cited in that report showed fruit imports, measured by LC openings, falling 8.5 per cent year on year to $107 million in July to November of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

Ahead of Ramadan 2026, the government eased taxes on dates only. In a press release on 24 December 2025 the NBR said the customs duty on date imports had been cut from 25 to 15 per cent by a gazette notification of 23 December 2025, effective until 31 March 2026, to keep the market stable during Ramadan. It also said that the advance income tax on the import of all fruits, including dates, had been lowered from 10 to 5 per cent in the previous budget, and that a 50 per cent concession on advance income tax for date and fruit imports had been retained. The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission had estimated in November 2024 that the country needs 1 lakh to 1.10 lakh tonnes of dates a year, of which 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes are eaten during Ramadan alone.

Pabna district, in Rajshahi division, covers 2,376.13 square kilometres between the Padma and Jamuna rivers, according to Banglapedia. Natore and Sirajganj, two of the three districts from which Pabna's fruit sellers said they buy, lie on its northern border. The district was formed in 1832 and has nine upazilas. The 2011 census counted 2,523,179 people, and agriculture was the main source of income for 53.75 per cent of households.

The Jagonews24 report said that, apart from jujube and guava, no fruit is grown in Pabna. Banglapedia's upazila profiles do not support that as a general statement: they list mango, banana, litchi, papaya and lemon as the main fruits of Pabna Sadar upazila; mango, jackfruit, litchi, papaya, lemon, plum, palm and wood apple in Ishwardi; and mango, black berry, guava and banana in Bera. Most of these, however, are summer fruits. Banglapedia notes that about 54 per cent of the country's fruit is harvested and marketed in the four months from Baishakh to Srabon (mid-April to mid-August), while the rest comes over the other eight months. In late February, when this report was written, the local fruits on Pabna's stalls were mainly jujube and guava, and almost everything else came in from outside.

Ishwardi upazila also hosts major agricultural research facilities, including a regional agricultural research centre, a pulses research centre and the country's only sugarcane research centre, Banglapedia says. Hajirhat, where the consumer rights directorate ran its drive, is one of the noted bazars of Pabna Sadar upazila, and Kashinathpur, where one seller said fruit was cheaper, is in Bera upazila, whose rivers include the Padma and the Jamuna.

The fruits that topped Pabna's price list are mostly not grown commercially in Bangladesh at all. Banglapedia lists orange, apple, pomegranate, grape, date and mandarin as the country's common imported fruits, and notes that cultivation of temperate fruits has been unsuccessful in Bangladesh except for grapes in some places, with oranges grown only in limited areas of Sylhet and in remote parts of Rangamati (Sajek) and Bandarban (Ruma). In early 2023 the office secretary of the fresh fruit importers' association told The Daily Star that about 40 per cent of the country's demand for fruit was met locally and the rest through imports; the same report cited Bangladesh Bank data showing fruit imports worth $157.38 million in July to January of the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The two local fruits that buyers in Pabna said were still within reach are both well established in Bangladesh. Banglapedia describes Indian jujube (boroi or kul) as a medium-sized deciduous tree bearing small fruit weighing 10 to 70 grams, which is available in the off-season for other fruits and harvested in February and March. That is why it was on sale in Pabna in the first days of Ramadan, at Tk 150 a kilogram up to the second day and Tk 100 a week later.

Guava, according to Banglapedia, came from tropical America and is now grown in almost every village grove in Bangladesh. It is a major source of vitamin C: the encyclopedia cites a vitamin C content of 260 milligrams per 100 grams of edible portion, while noting that nutrient content varies with variety, season and maturity. The main flowering is in summer, but under irrigation guava trees can flower in the off-season, from January to March. In Dhaka on 21 February, the Dhaka Tribune found guava selling at Tk 130 to 150 a kilogram.

Hafiza Hasan's remark that fruit should be part of iftar reflects general dietary advice. The World Health Organization's healthy diet fact sheet, updated on 26 January 2026, says that everyone older than 10 years should aim for at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables a day, and that a healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition in all its forms as well as noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. People with a health condition who fast should ask a doctor about their diet.

Bangladesh falls well short of such levels. Banglapedia notes that each person should eat at least 85 grams of fruit a day for a healthy life, but that the average Bangladeshi eats only about 35 grams, and that the distribution is unequal: the rich eat more, while many poor people get none. It also says that farmers often receive less than half the price consumers pay, with intermediaries taking more than half as marketing margin, and that 30 to 40 per cent of fruit rots every year for lack of proper preservation and processing.

For households like those of Matin and Azmat Sheikh, with a single apple costing Tk 50 to 60 and a day's income of Tk 400 to 500, imported fruit had become a luxury at iftar in Ramadan 2026, while the cheaper local jujube and guava were the fruits still within reach.

Photo: কুউ পুলক / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, BSS, Dhaka Tribune, The Daily Star, The Business Standard, National Board of Revenue, Consumer Rights Protection Act 2009 (Laws of Bangladesh), Banglapedia, World Health Organization