Chapainawabganj dried fruit entrepreneur Ismail Khan Shamim says small and medium enterprises must be brought in if Bangladesh is to build a Thailand-style market for processed fruit.
FruitsAt a Dhaka roundtable on 27 June 2026, fruit expert Dr. Md. Mehedi Masud said 65 percent of Bangladesh's roughly 15.2 million tonnes of annual fruit output comes in four months, and called for storage, processing and year-round production.
The country's fruit-processing industry is going through a hard time because of reduced export incentives, rising production costs, high-interest loans and dearer raw materials, says Hashem Foods managing director Md Abul Hashem.
Satkora, the aromatic citrus known as Sylhet's traditional fruit, is now almost entirely imported from India, and part of it is re-exported abroad under the name Sylheti satkora.
Formalin is never used on fruit in Bangladesh and the idea is a misconception, the project director of the DAE's exportable mango production project told a Jago News round table.
Researchers say the rind and seeds of southern Bangladesh's watermelons, now thrown away, could be processed into food, oil, feed and the amino acid citrulline.
Quality fruit and food products are made in Bangladesh, but poor publicity, weak consumer awareness and gaps between farmers and scientists keep the sector from its potential, CAB's vice-president said.
To realise the potential of Bangladesh's fruit processing industry, international standards and destination-specific compliance must be ensured, not just production, a BSTI official said.
Eaten more than 100 billion times a year, the banana is the world's most consumed fruit and, after wheat, rice and maize, its fourth most important food crop.
Foreign mango varieties are catching on in the Khagrachhari hills because they fetch several times the price of local mangoes, but orchard owners say tolls on the way to market are a major burden.
CropsKhulna district produced more than 80,000 tonnes of fruit on about 25,000 hectares in 2024-25, yet by June 2026 it had no cold storage, processing or organised fruit market, and no fruit had been exported from the district.
Bogura entrepreneur Tania Akter began with just 2 kg of jujube pickle, and that small venture has grown into a brand.
A hobby started in 2003 has grown into a 50-acre orchard of about 50 local and foreign fruit trees on the hills of Mirsarai in Chattogram.
