Bangladesh fares poorly in South Asia in consumption of fruits and vegetables

Bangladesh ranks among the lowest in South Asia regarding the availability of fruits and vegetables, resulting in poor nutrition outcomes for its 170 million people.

Avinash Kishore, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), shared the findings at an international event in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The research organisation hosted a two-day event in Nepal to unveil its "Global Food Policy Report 2024".

Bangladeshis consume only 155 grammes of fruits and vegetables per day, far below the global recommendation of 400 grammes, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Of this, only 29 grammes come from fruits and 126 grammes from vegetables.

"The malnutrition rates remain high, and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are rising in South Asia, where poor diet quality is a major contributor to poor nutrition outcomes," said Kishore.

He identified four key factors: poor crop diversity, low affordability due to the high cost of nutrient-dense foods, inefficiencies in market value chains, and easy access to highly processed foods.

Six out of the eight South Asian countries do not meet the global standard of 400 grammes.

Pakistan ranked the lowest with only 128 grammes, while the Maldives, an independent island nation, achieved the highest position.

"Nearly half of the more than 2 billion people worldwide who cannot afford a healthy diet live in South Asia," Kishore said, quoting data from the FAO's Food System Dashboard as of August 2024.

In another presentation, Purnima Menon, senior director of food and nutrition policy at IFPRI, noted that low incomes and the high costs of safe and diverse foods, especially fruits, vegetables, and animal-source foods, make healthy diets unaffordable for at least 2 billion people worldwide.

She added that the dual burden of malnutrition, combined with climate change, has brought global attention to the urgent need to transform food systems to support sustainable and healthy diets.

Commenting on the low availability of fruits and vegetables, Malay Kanti Mridha, a professor of the BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health at the BRAC University, highlighted the need for more research across life cycles, as food choices change at different life stages.

"There is a need for focused interventions to improve diets in urban areas, as the proportion of the urban population is increasing," he said.

Speaking at the event, Shahidur Rashid, director for South Asia at IFPRI, emphasised that achieving sustainable healthy diets will require substantial investment in high-impact food system action.

"Global commitments to nutrition are strong, but the world is not moving fast enough to finance and implement effective strategies to meet our nutrition and sustainability goals," he said.

He also stressed the importance of integrating economic growth with diet and nutrition improvements.

Johan Swinnen, director general of IFPRI, Zaidi Sattar, chairman of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, and Pradip Poudel, health and population minister of Nepal, among others, also spoke on the occasion.