Apart from seasonal fruits, large quantities of fruits are imported to meet the demand throughout the year, but this time seasonal fruits like jackfruit, mango, and pineapple are being exported from Bangladesh to the United Kingdom. Bangladesh can become one of the world’s leading fruit exporters if it can continue exporting small quantities of domestic fruits abroad by sea. On 5 October, for the first time, shipments of jackfruit, mango, and pineapple produced in the country were sent to the United Kingdom by sea through Chittagong port. Earlier, green mangoes were exported, but this time ripe mangoes have been cut into small pieces, frozen, and exported. Similarly, ripe jackfruits and pineapples have been cut into pieces, packaged, and exported.
Mashud Agro Processing Food Products, a company based in Icha Nagar, Karnaphuli, Chattogram, has exported 528 kg of processed domestic fruits with 18.5 tonnes of vegetables in its initial stage. Mfs Seafoods Limited of the UK is importing these fruits from Bangladesh. On 22 September, the processed ripe fruits were sent to the Chittagong port for shipping in a refrigerated container from the Eastern Logistics Depot along with 18.5 tonnes of vegetables. The consignment was shipped to the United Kingdom via the transshipment port on a ONE Network Express ship on 5 October. Ashraf Hossain Mashud, Head, Mashud Agro Processing Food Products, said: ‘Our country produces a lot of seasonal fruits in different seasons. The price of these fruits goes down in the peak season. Then often, these fruits are seen to be wasted. But if these fruits are collected during the season and kept frozen and exported abroad, there will be ample opportunity to earn foreign exchange. We want the ripe fruits of Bangladesh to be well-known abroad and a regular demand to be created for them.’
