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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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