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Prices of locally produced fruits experienced a sharp hike as the demand for imported fruits declined. This was caused by further imposition of regulatory duty, depreciation of the Taka against dollar, and 100% cash margin on letter of credit (LC) opening which led to hike in price by at least 30-40%.
People are switching to locally produced fruits like mango, banana, pineapple, papaya, guava and green coconut, which led to the increase in prices, market insiders said.
According to the information from major fruit markets of the capital, locally produced mango (ashwina) was selling for Tk120-130 per kg, bari-4 mango for Tk220, locally produced green malta for Tk120-150 and guava (both Barishal and Rajshahi variant) were selling for Tk70-100.
Moreover, gaab (velvet-apple) was selling at Tk120 per kg, amra (hog plum) at Tk80-100, and papaya at Tk160-250 per kg.
Home-grown pineapple was selling for Tk140-180 per pair based on size, green coconut at Tk120-160 per piece, banana (sagor and sobri) at Tk120-140 per dozen, banana (champa) at Tk80-90 per dozen, bel (wood-apple) at Tk100-140 per pair, and lemon was being sold at Tk60-70 per dozen.
Dragon fruit was selling for Tk 550-750 per kg, an increase by Tk150 per kg in recent weeks.
On the other hand, according to the importers of the capital’s top fruit markets, after the imposition of the regulatory duty, depreciation of Taka and LC margin issues, the fruit import declined by at least 30% to 33%.
Earlier, due to the dollar crisis, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) took an initiative to discourage fruit imports by imposing a 20% regulatory duty on them and as a result, the price of imported fruits increased by 20%-40%, which has started to affect the wholesale and retail sales of imported fruits.
Among the imported fruits, apple (green) was being sold for Tk320-350 per kg, apple (Chinese Fuji) for Tk280-300, and apple (gala) for Tk280-300, though most of the shops had only one or two variants.
Moreover, white pear and green pear were being sold for Tk360-380 and Tk340 respectively where oranges were for Tk260-300 and Tk240-280 per kg respectively.
Green grapes were being sold for Tk600-650 per kg, red grapes for Tk550, black grapes for Tk650-700 and pomegranate was priced at Tk500-650 per kg.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, Serajul Islam, general secretary of Bangladesh Fresh Fruits Importer Association (BFFIA), said that a regulatory duty of 20% has been levied on fruit as a luxury item.
“Moreover, importers have to open loan of credit (LC) with 100% margin which led to a significant decline in import, nearly 30% to 33%,” he added.
He also said that due to the low supply in the market, the price of fruits have increased by nearly 20%-40% or more.
“Importers don’t have enough money to open LC with 100% margin. Hence, sustaining our business has become a challenge,” he added.
According to Sheikh Abdul Karim, general secretary of Dhaka City Fruits Importers-Exporters and Wholesalers Traders Association, the supply of imported fruits fell in the wholesale markets of the capital causing an increase in demand for local fruits and thus eventually leading to the price hike.
Moreover, the season of mango, jackfruit, watermelon, etc is almost over and the transportation costs have also surged due to fuel price hike, which further impacted the market.
According to the import data for 2021, the people of the country consume an average of 16 lakh 88 thousand kg of imported fruits every day.
The daily retail market of fruits is worth Tk27 crore and the estimated size of the annual fruit market at the retail level in the country is about Tk10 thousand crore.
Usually, the demand for imported fruits is high from September to January because of a limited supply of local fruits during this time.
(DT)
