A jack of all fruits

Figure: The jackfruit was Bangladesh’s natural choice for the FAO One Country One priority product initiative, which helps countries identify and maximise the market potential of certain national products. ©FAO/Saikat Mojumder

FAO story 13/01/2025

Khadiga Khanom never used to give much thought to jackfruit. In her home district of Gazipur, about 50 kilometres north of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, Khadiga had certainly seen plenty of jackfruit trees in her life. They are hard to miss, as oblong, spiky green fruits, which can easily each weigh several kilos.

She had even cooked jackfruit in her curries along with an array of other ingredients. But she never imagined that one day it would become one of the main sources of her family’s livelihood.

It all came about after the 37-year-old homemaker took part in a series of workshops and trainings where she learned how to process a whole range of products that can be made from the jackfruit.

With this training provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), she soon decided to take a leap of faith and start her own business. Today, she produces an array of jackfruit-based goods, including pickles, jam, burgers, cakes, pizzas and even plant-based leather.

Processing about 100 kilograms of jackfruit daily, with five employees in a specially equipped room in her home, she’s able to earn an income of about USD 400 a month. She proudly shares that the money is “helping me support my family, and I'm even saving up to expand the business. I never thought jackfruit would change my life like this.”

The learnings were part of the FAO One Country One Priority Product (OCOP) initiative which helps countries identify the products that have the most market potential and provides support in maximising it.

For Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest producer of jackfruit, this was a natural choice. Jackfruit is also the country’s national fruit and symbolizes abundance. Yet much of the potential of this fruit remained untapped.

Outdated subsistence farming methods and post-harvest losses due to poor storage have led to many jackfruit rotting before reaching markets.

See https://www.fao.org/newsroom/story/a-jack-of-all-fruits/en