The ‘jackfruit burger’ was a joke. The jackfruit economy isn’t
There was a brief period of time when jackfruit in Bangladesh became less a fruit than a political insult.
In December 2022, Sheikh Hasina, then prime minister and now the country’s ousted autocrat, suggested that Bangladeshis consider green jackfruit in dishes normally made with meat. She spoke of jackfruit burgers and kebabs, noting that such products were fashionable and expensive in richer countries. The politics were disastrous.
At a moment of rising food prices, many Bangladeshis heard not culinary innovation but a ruler mocking people who could no longer comfortably afford beef or chicken. The jackfruit burger duly entered the national catalogue of memes and Hasina was bestowed with the title of "Kathalrani" by a popular Youtuber.
History has an irritating habit of rescuing bad political salesmanship with inconvenient facts. Hasina’s suggestion was tone-deaf, but jackfruit really does have economic potential. Bangladesh has spent years treating its national fruit rather like an eccentric uncle…officially honoured but rarely trusted with serious business.
That is peculiar for a country producing 1.8 million to 1.9 million tonnes of jackfruit annually. Daily Waadaa, in its recent report citing the Department of Agricultural Extension data, reported that about 34 to 38% of the crop is wasted because of weak demand and inadequate storage. That is an industrial policy waiting to happen.
Jackfruit is everywhere in Bangladesh. It grows around homesteads, beside roads, near forests and in urban pockets across the country. Back in 2024, The Business Standard newspaper reported Bangladesh ranked second globally in production after India. Yet abundance has encouraged complacency. When something grows almost by itself, governments tend to assume an economy will do the same.
The rest of the world has been less sentimental and more commercially alert. National Geographic magazine identified jackfruit years ago as a promising meat substitute, particularly because unripe jackfruit has a fibrous, substantial texture and absorbs the flavours in which it is cooked.
Vegans have used it for tacos, curries, salads and barbecue-style sandwiches. BBC Travel described its rise as a “vegan sensation”, noting its long history in Sri Lanka as a food capable of sustaining families during difficult periods.
Its attraction to vegans is straightforward. Green jackfruit can be shredded, seasoned and cooked into something texturally reminiscent of pulled meat without pretending to be laboratory beef. It is plant-based, versatile and familiar enough to Asian agriculture to avoid the faintly industrial aura surrounding some engineered meat substitutes.
It is not nutritionally identical to meat, but consumers do not buy food as a protein spreadsheet. Texture, flavour, convenience and environmental preference matter too.
Bangladesh has already demonstrated that the fruit need not end its commercial life on a roadside tarpaulin. The Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute has developed more than 30 possible products, including chips, pickles, fresh cuts, dried products, jam, ice cream, yoghurt, powder and ready-to-cook meat alternatives.
Fresh processing can transform the economics dramatically. A whole fruit selling for 200-250 taka could yield 400-450 taka when sold fresh-cut. This is called value addition, an idea Bangladesh understands well in garments but sometimes forgets when confronted by a tree.
Then there is China.
China has now formally opened its market to fresh Bangladeshi jackfruit. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has pointed to Malaysia’s durian trade as evidence of what might be possible. The comparison is not absurd. Jackfruit and durian are large, spiky tropical fruits with formidable aromas, although they differ markedly in taste and texture.
Daily Bruin newspaper’s taste comparison found jackfruit sweeter and more fibrous, while durian was softer and custard-like. One might say they are cousins who attend the same alarming family reunion.
The important similarity, however, is commercial. China imported nearly $7 billion worth of durian in 2024: about 1.56 million tonnes, according to Chinese customs figures.. In 2025, fresh durian imports rose to about $7.49 billion. Jackfruit will not simply become another durian.
But the figures demonstrate something useful…that Chinese consumers will spend extraordinary sums on a distinctive tropical fruit when supply chains, branding, quality and market access align.
Bangladesh possesses the fruit and lacks much of the alignment.
Waadaa’s reporting on the new Chinese access makes the problem painfully clear. Export jackfruit must come from orchards following good agricultural practices, with pest monitoring, sanitation and traceability. Fruits must be protected from quarantine pests. Packing houses must wash, grade and inspect them.
Packages require production and registration details, shipments need phytosanitary certificates, and Chinese customs can reject consignments that fail inspection.
Exporting fresh food is partly the business of proving where it came from and what crawled on it. Bangladesh’s jackfruit is still produced largely around homesteads rather than organised commercial orchards. Traceability, specialised packaging, cold storage and export-grade handling remain limited.
The country’s mango experience with China offers a warning: despite market access, Waadaa reported only six tonnes were exported over two years, while most interested exporters failed approval requirements.
The answer, therefore, is not another jackfruit festival or minister photographed beside an unusually large specimen. Bangladesh needs designated export orchards, farmer cooperatives, GAP certification, collection centres, modern packing houses, cold-chain investment and processors near production belts.
It should develop frozen, canned, vacuum-packed and ready-to-cook jackfruit alongside fresh exports, because processed products travel farther and waste less. Exporters should study Chinese preferences rather than assume patriotism is a marketing strategy abroad.
There is room for branding. Thailand has durian, New Zealand kiwifruit and Mexico avocado. Bangladesh could make jackfruit part of its agricultural identity…not merely the national fruit printed in schoolbooks, but a commercial crop sold in Shanghai or New York supermarkets and European vegan aisles.
The final irony is rather neat. Bangladeshis were understandably offended when an increasingly unpopular ruler appeared to prescribe jackfruit as consolation for expensive meat. But the mistake was not taking jackfruit seriously. It was presenting economic possibility as household austerity.
A government should not tell citizens to eat jackfruit because meat costs too much. It should build an industry in which farmers earn more because foreigners want to eat it.
The jackfruit burger deserved the jokes. The jackfruit economy does not.
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Faisal Mahmud is the Managing Editor of Daily Waadaa