Why a Kilo of Apples Now Costs Tk380 in Dhaka, Bangladesh's Fruit Import Taxes Hit 122 Percent

Key takeaways

• A kilo of apples now retails for Tk300 to Tk400 in Dhaka, up from Tk250 to Tk340 two years ago, as import duty and tax on six fruits has climbed to as much as 122 percent.
• Private fruit imports fell to 5.7 lakh tonnes in FY26, down 29 percent from 8 lakh tonnes five years earlier, even as tariff revenue on fruit nearly doubled to about Tk6,000 crore.
• None of the taxed fruits, apples, oranges, grapes, mandarins, pears and pomegranates, are commercially grown in Bangladesh, so the tariffs protect no domestic industry.
• The country's own trade body is recommending the duties come down, estimating that a lower tariff could still raise more total revenue by reviving import volumes.

If a bag of oranges at the Dhaka market has started to feel like a small splurge, the numbers back up that feeling. Import duty and tax on six fresh fruits, none of which grow commercially in Bangladesh, have climbed as high as 121.78 percent, and for a few fruits, including kiwis, durians and persimmons, as high as 129.38 percent. The government is collecting more money from fruit at the border than ever before, nearly Tk6,000 crore in FY26, roughly double what it collected five years earlier. But it is doing so on a shrinking volume of fruit actually entering the country, and the country's own trade analysts are now arguing the tariffs have gone too far.

The Tax Math Behind Your Fruit Bowl

Start with what a piece of fruit actually costs before it reaches a shop shelf. Importers bringing in South African and Egyptian oranges through Dhaka's Badamtoli wholesale market pay roughly 75 US cents, about Tk90, per kilo at the point of import. After duties and taxes, that same kilo costs about Tk197. By the time transport, handling and demurrage charges are added, before any retail markup at all, the landed cost reaches Tk250 to Tk255 a kilo. South African apples follow a similar path: an import cost of around 70 US cents a kilo turns into an expected retail price of Tk280 to Tk300 once taxes and logistics are layered on. In Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, retail apples are now going for around Tk380 a kilo, and oranges have recently touched Tk500 before easing back to the Tk400 to Tk450 range.

Less Fruit Is Coming In, Even as the Treasury Takes More

The National Board of Revenue has steadily raised the total tax and duty burden on these fruits since the 2022 fiscal year, part of a broader push to raise revenue that has also touched countless other imported goods. The combined effect of those increases, plus a taka that has weakened roughly 43 percent against the dollar since FY21, has priced out a meaningful share of demand. Private importers brought in 5.7 lakh tonnes of fresh fruit in FY26, down 29 percent from 8 lakh tonnes five years earlier. Apples, oranges and grapes together made up the bulk of that volume. According to the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission's own analysis, submitted to the commerce ministry, duty revenue on fruit still rose to nearly Tk6,000 crore in FY26 even as volume fell, because the tax rate increases more than offset the drop in quantity, at least so far.

Two other forces have kept demand for imported fruit from falling even further. Dengue outbreaks in recent years have kept households reaching for vitamin C rich fruits such as oranges even at higher prices, while persistent inflation has simultaneously squeezed how much fruit lower and fixed income households can afford, pulling demand in opposite directions depending on who is shopping. Fruit importers have also flagged a more mundane problem: shipments from South Africa take 30 to 35 days in transit, long enough that spoilage eats into margins before the fruit ever reaches a wholesaler.

Who Says the Tariffs Should Come Down

The pushback is coming from multiple directions. The Bangladesh Fresh Fruits Importers Association has asked the government to remove the additional duties altogether. The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission's own submission argues that "imposing high tariffs on these fruits does not serve to protect any domestic horticultural industry," since none of the six fruits are grown commercially in the country, meaning the tariffs function purely as a revenue tool rather than a trade protection measure. AHM Shafiquzzaman, president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, put the trade off bluntly: "Because of high import tariffs, the government is getting more revenue, but prices of fruits have gone up."

The commission's own modelling suggests the current approach may be self defeating even in pure revenue terms. It projects that if import volumes recovered to around 8.2 lakh tonnes and the combined tariff came down closer to 89 percent, roughly where it stood in FY21, total duty revenue could actually exceed Tk6,500 crore, more than the record collected this year under far higher rates. The logic is straightforward: a lower rate on a larger volume can outcollect a higher rate on a shrinking one, and the commission's analysis suggests Bangladesh may already be on the wrong side of that curve. The commission has also noted that Bangladesh's fresh fruit tariffs are now the highest in South Asia, with Nepal's among the lowest in the region.

What It Means for Your Grocery Budget

For now, nothing in this debate has translated into an actual rate cut, so Bangladeshi households should plan on today's prices, not a hoped for reduction. Shoppers looking to manage a grocery budget around fruit have a few practical levers: buying from wholesale adjacent markets rather than premium retail outlets, favouring whichever imported fruit is in its own cheaper supply window rather than defaulting to the same one or two varieties, and watching for the kind of price swings that recent dengue seasons and currency moves have both triggered. If the trade commission's recommendation is eventually adopted and tariffs do come down, the bigger winners will likely be households that have cut back on fruit the most, since even a partial price reduction would do more to restore affordability for lower income buyers than for those who never stopped buying at today's prices.