Another bitter Baishakh for sweet shops

Pahela Baishakh, the first day of the Bangla calendar, is the busiest day for sweet makers in Bangladesh as customers throng outlets to buy delicious items.

But the collapse in demand because of the year-long pandemic and new countrywide lockdown has dampened the festive mood.

Over the years, the festival has become the biggest occasion for sweetmeat makers on the back of a rising trend among corporates to send gift hampers, containing sweet items, to their clients and vendors.

Thanks to the corporate purchase, producers would sell as much as 100 tonnes of sweets worth about Tk 3 crore per day between April 9 and 17.

It is a tradition to welcome the Bangla new year, which falls on April 14, with sweets. The sales ahead of Pahela Baishakh and throughout the month are the second biggest spending season after Eid-ul-Fitr.

But shop-owners say the sales volume will not be more than a third of the average time, or Tk 1 crore per day across the country during the period.

This is the second year in row that sweetmeat stores have lower sales because of the impact of Covid-19.

One such gloomy vendor is Premium Sweets, a high-end brand and a favourite among corporates.

"This year is slightly better than the previous as outlets have remained open for certain hours of the day. But the demand is low as there is a lack of bulk orders compared to the pre-pandemic years," said Mahbubur Rahman Bakul, head of corporate affairs of Premium Sweets.

Due to low sales, the company has temporarily closed three of its outlets in the city.

Mithai, a sister concern of Pran-RFL Group, had a bumper Pahela Baishakh every year since its inception in 2015.

"But the scenario is quite different this year," said Kamruzzaman Kamal, director for marketing of the group.

The company has 43 stores and offers 15 types of gift boxes and hampers weighing 1 kg to 4 kg.

Kamal said: "Due to the lockdown, we are trying to reach the doorstep of consumers through online orders or over the telephone." 

"We usually plan to sell sweets of Tk 1 crore on the first day of Baishakh. But once again, we could not sell ahead of the festival this time. We did not get an order for sweets this year," said Syed Nurul Islam, CEO of Well Group, on Monday.

Jane Alam Romel, group chief marketing officer of IDLC Finance, said the company used to send 500 packages containing sweets and other items to stakeholders on the occasion of Pahela Baishakh before the pandemic.

"We have not sent a single packet in the last two years."

Similarly, Crown Cement Group used to send 1,500 packets of sweet items on average to corporate clients, well-wishers, media and banking clients. Like the previous Baishakh, it has not sent any sweet items to such stakeholders, said an official.

A spokesperson of a food-processing company said his company would send packets to 300 stakeholders on the eve of Pahela Baishakh. "We have not been doing this for two years now."

While there is no reliable data about sweetmeat's market size in Bangladesh, manufacturers say about 10,000 tonnes of sweets worth Tk 300 crore are sold annually. The demand has halved compared to previous years.

Brands such as Muslim, Mithai, Rosh, Premium Sweets, Banoful, Meena Sweets and Khazana Mithai sell 1,000 tonnes of sweet items combined.

As per Mithai's previous analysis, the market for sweets has expanded rapidly in recent years thanks to rising purchasing power.

The demand for branded sweets increased by 30 per cent and non-branded by 60 to 70 per cent from 2016 to 2019.

About 3,500 sweet shops are registered with the Bangladesh Sweets Manufacturers Association. Of them, around 250 are located in the capital.