Farmers heave a sigh of relief as strawberry market picks up steam

On a sunny winter day in 2014, Md Shahin Uddin, a small farmer of Rajshahi's Charghat upazila, came to the capital with high hopes of selling his bright red strawberries at Karwanbazar. But his aspiration fizzled out quickly after hearing nominal price offers from consumers.

An indignant Shahin, instead of selling his hard-earned fruits, dumped them on the side of a street and went back home empty-handed. He gave up strawberry farming for some time, but not for long.

The small-scale cultivation of strawberries, a high-value product, started around 2007-08 in the country, according to agriculture officials.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) data shows that around 789 tonnes of strawberries were cultivated on 101 hectares of land in the 2021-22 fiscal year. The production of strawberries has been increasing year-on-year since 2017.

As one of the early growers, Shahin Uddin sowed strawberry seeds on 19.8 decimals of land in 2008. Needless to say, his endeavour failed to see a profit.

"The initial yields were not so good quality and the market was too small at that time. I made little to no profit for the first six years but kept on going despite recurrent blows," Shahin told The Business Standard (TBS).

"I am cultivating strawberries on 175 decimals of land now. The yield is good and I am making a profit," Shahin added.

It took farmers like Shahin and researchers more than a decade but their hard work finally paid off as strawberry farming is finally making waves in Bangladesh.

A kilogram of strawberries is now selling in the Dhaka markets for Tk550 to Tk1,200, depending on the quality. Farmers are selling strawberries to wholesalers at Tk250-500 per kg.

According to strawberry growers and agriculture officials, strawberry cultivation stumbled in the first few years of inception due to subpar quality, a lack of buyers, and poor market management.

Rakibul Islam Raki, a farmer from Rajshahi's Godagari upazila who learned the farming process himself for two years, chose to do strawberry farming in 2015 as a career to overcome unemployment. 

But his experience was also bittersweet from the start. He was able to grow strawberries on 87 decimals of land and sold them for just Tk20 per kg.

Rocky told TBS, "After investing Tk5 lakh in it, I had to incur losses of around Tk1.5 lakh the first time. However, in the next few years, I was able to break even."

"But the situation changed drastically after 2017 as demand and prices surged in the market. I am now selling at Tk400-500 per kg," the farmer added.

According to the DAE data, in the fiscal year 2014-15, around 1,594 tonnes of strawberries were produced on 280 hectares of land. 

Amid huge production, farmers had to sell strawberries at Tk10-20 per kg. The retail market price was Tk60-150 per kg but people were not even interested in it.

The farmers were disappointed and many of them abandoned farming – the result of which could be seen the next year as strawberry production declined by 72% to 450 tonnes. 

The decline in production continued till the 2018-19 fiscal year and then the situation started to turn around. 

In the fiscal year 2019-20, around 196 tonnes of strawberries were cultivated on only 40 hectares of land and struggling farmers started to get good prices. 

Dr Md Mehdi Masood, the project director of the Year-Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement Project of DAE, told TBS, "Farmers produced large quantities of strawberries in FY2014-15 hoping for good returns but the price fell due to lack of buyers. Besides, many traders faced issues with marketing as strawberries are perishable products."

At present, there is a good number of buyers in the market and farmers are getting good prices due to a balance between production and demand, he said.

"Like strawberries, the farming of dragon fruit is also profitable. It is possible to earn Tk2-3 lakh per year by farming dragon fruit on just 25 decimals of land, which is not possible in any other traditional farming," Mehdi Masood added.

Alongside strawberries, dragon cultivation in the country also continues to grow. About 14,000 tonnes of dragon fruit were produced in the last financial year, the DAE data shows.

Currently, Rajshahi produces the largest amount of strawberries in the whole country, followed by Chattogram.

In search of a better variety

A more sweet-flavoured strawberry variety was invented recently by Md Manzoor Hossain, a professor at the Botany Department of Rajshahi University and the trailblazer of strawberry research.

"We have completed the work of developing a sweeter variety but it has not been named yet. After completing some formal procedures, the cultivation of this variety will be gradually promoted," Manzoor Hossain told TBS, adding that it may take a little more than two years for the expansion of the new variety.

Currently, there are three common varieties of strawberries in Bangladesh – Rabi 1, Rabi 2 and Rabi 3. 

Md Manzoor Hossain said, "In 1996 when I went to Japan for my PhD, I saw research being done on strawberries in a lab there. I brought some varieties to the country while returning from Japan later that year." 

"But the varieties I brought with me were suited to the Japanese environment, and the plants started dying within a few days of being planted in Bangladeshi soil," he said.

"I did not give up and continued my research till I found other varieties suitable for the country," Manzoor Hossain added.

The researcher, who has a PhD in biotechnology, then started culturing strawberries in test tubes. Experimental cultivation of these varieties started at Rajshahi University.

In 2007, the university began cultivating strawberries on a larger scale. Since then, farmers, extension workers, and other researchers started interacting with Manzoor Hossain. 

Hundreds of farmers were trained in strawberry farming at Rajshahi University and seeds were provided to them. This is how strawberry cultivation spread across the country.