Poster in May 31, 2022 02:12:38

The market for biscuits in Bangladesh is growing

The market for biscuits in Bangladesh is growing

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Biscuit Day was introduced in 1630 to commemorate the birth of King Charles of England. Biscuit Day is celebrated loudly in the United Kingdom as well as in the United States. The day is also celebrated in other countries. Although biscuits are popular in Bangladesh, there is no official celebration of the day.

Times have changed. New items have been added to the daily food list. However, the biscuit ‘treat’ as ‘Ta’ with a cup of tea to invigorate the body and mind is the same as before. Due to this, the popularity of this food is increasing to satisfy the small hunger with the passage of time.

Older companies in biscuit production are increasing their investments because of the potential. New companies are coming again. Last year, two big industrial groups came to the biscuit market in Corona epidemic. To survive in the competition, almost all the companies are bringing new flavors of biscuits. There is also variation in prices. All in all, the country's biscuit market is growing.

There are no precise statistics on the size of the country's biscuit market. Officials of several companies said that the market for biscuits in the country is around Tk 10,800 crore. Of that, the market for branded biscuits is about half, around Tk 5,400 crore. The market for biscuits is growing at a rate of 12 to 15 percent every year. In recent times, the prices of all kinds of raw materials including flour, oil and sugar have gone up. As a result, the price of biscuits has started rising. Some companies have already increased the prices of their products. Some companies are calculating that prices will soon rise.

The biscuit market is broadly divided into three categories. These are biscuits made by ordinary bakeries, biscuits of small area or area based brands and biscuits produced in the factories of established big companies. As the price of branded biscuits has come down, their sales are increasing every year. Apart from that, the popularity of the brand's biscuits has taken another step due to the increase in health awareness among the general public during the Corona period. Olympic, Haque, Nabisco, Danish, Romania, Kokola, Pran, Kiswan, Well Food, Akij, Fresh, Dan Cake — these are the big brands in the biscuit market now.

At present, biscuits of various flavors including potato, cumin, cream, chocolate, wafer, toast, spices, salt, nuts, milk, ghee, salt, vegetables, glucose, coffee, strawberry, orange are being sold in the market of the country. In addition, a number of companies have introduced biscuits without sugar and digestive biscuits for diabetics. Cookies are also popular among the middle and upper middle class. Imports have declined sharply as domestic companies produce biscuits of various flavors. The savings are in foreign currency.

When it comes to biscuits, the first thing to talk about is Olympic Industries. The company has been doing business in the biscuit and confectionery market for two decades. Launched in 1979, the company started its biscuit and confectionery business in 1996. At present, the company has a majority share in the country's biscuit market. They are also the second largest exporter. The company sells biscuits under about 36 brands. The most popular of these are Energy Plus, Nutty, Tip and Fast Choice Biscuits.

According to a senior official of Olympic Industries, at present, around Tk 450 crore worth of branded biscuits are sold in the country at present. If you take non-brand biscuits, it will be more than Tk 900 crore . Among them, the sales of the Olympics are Tk 200 to 210 crore.

Akij Insaf Group, the country's leading industrial conglomerate in the commodity business in the middle of last year due to the potential. For this, they have invested Tk 1,200 crore in a new company called Akij Bakers Limited. Akij Bakers is currently producing a variety of bakery products including biscuits and cookies under two brands.

Md. Shafiqul Islam, Chief Marketing Officer, Akij Bakers, said, “Buyers are always looking for quality products. I have also found evidence of that in the case of biscuits. In the last one year we have received good response from buyers. Our goal is to be the third largest market for biscuits in three years. He said Akij Bakers is currently selling biscuits and cookies worth Tk 16 to 17 crore a month.

Pran-RFL Group officially started its journey in the biscuit market in 2012. Besides biscuits, the company also has bakery products like bread, cakes and pastries. They are currently selling biscuits of 10 brands namely Biscuit Club, Potato, Fruit Fun, Milkis, Hattrick, Fit Packers.

Kamruzzaman Kamal, marketing director of Pran-RFL Group, said the biscuit business in the country has undergone a major transformation in the last two decades. That is, people are turning to non-branded biscuits for branded products. Companies have focused on producing quality biscuits due to increasing domestic demand. Imports have declined.

In 2015, a joint venture with Dan Cake of Denmark set up a company called Dan Foods Limited in Bangladesh. Last year Dan Foods brought high quality cookies to market.

Shahid Bin Sarwar, chief marketing officer of Dan Foods, said many Bangladeshis now go abroad on business or travel. There they eat cookies in hotels and restaurants. They come to the country to look for cookies. Dan Cake is meeting that demand. As a result, the people of the country are able to eat Dan Cake cookies at a lower price than the imported cookies.

Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan, president of the Bangladesh Auto Bread and Manufacturing Association, said, "Imports have declined as domestic companies produce quality divers biscuits. The market share of branded biscuits is gradually increasing. It's very positive. "

|Source: Online/SZK

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