My first fashion of dipping sauce used to be in 2015 when I reluctantly tried chicken wings with ranch—a satisfied departure from tomato ketchup. The ranch used to be refreshing and supplied a condiment that suited my palate.
Snappy-forward to 2024, and the sauce industry in Bangladesh has gone through significant vogue. Households have moved past stocking right tomato ketchup and chilli sauce, embracing a fluctuate of flavours and experimenting with fusions of flavours.
When eateries fancy Takeout, Chillox and Madchef burst onto the Dhaka meals scene, they launched a fluctuate of sauces on a phenomenal higher scale; and folks like a flash developed a fashion for these fresh flavours.
Alternatively, sourcing these sauces used to be a verbalize. They weren’t on hand for devour in the neighborhood and the handiest risk used to be to amass imported products, which parents did, despite shrimp accessibility and excessive prices.
Recognising this hole, a wave of sauce enthusiasts executed market compare and started coming into the market with brief trial runs.
“It all started in 2020 when my alternate partner created achari chilli with tetul, impressed by the though-provoking recipes his mom would build—flavours steadily expose in Bangladeshi households. He started a dwelling alternate, letting chums and family sample it, and opened a Fb neighborhood the attach alive to folks could region orders,” shared Nomrota Sarker, partner and chief operations officer at Saus Taus.
The sure response triggered Sarker to procedure discontinuance a jump of religion. Intrigued by the possible in this budding market, she stop her job as an analyst in a enterprise capital firm in 2021 and joined her partner in the sauce alternate, with no intention of taking a search attend.
According to The Monetary Remark, Bangladesh imported meals worth Tk105,000 crore in 2023, with sauces and condiments accounting for 5% of this total, amounting to approximately Tk5,000 crore.
For the time being, 70% of these sauces and condiments are imported from Singapore, India and Thailand. The final 30% of the market is dominated by local brands equivalent to Ruchi, Pran and others, although their point of curiosity is on tomato ketchup or chilli sauce handiest.
“The imported products didn’t attraction to many Bangladeshi tastes. The imported mayonnaise alternate solutions, for occasion, lacked the localised flavours—equivalent to honey mustard or garlic mayo—that Dhaka’s restaurant chains had popularised. Folks had been actively looking out out these acquainted, localised tastes, and our flavours efficiently met their query for ‘restaurant-fashion’ alternate solutions,” Sarker added.
In September-October 2021, Saus Taus launched four to 5 flavours to the market, gaining significant traction. Their success ended in a collaboration with Chillox, which placed an checklist for 100 litres of sauce. Alternatively, as share of the settlement, these sauces weren’t accredited to be supplied one at a time to customers.
“Saus Taus is the first condiment alternate solutions designate in Bangladesh that launched with flavoured mayo and sauce and lastly needs to manual in other condiments fancy curry sauce, marinades, mixes and a lot of others,” Sarker emphasises.
One other necessary sauce designate available in the market is Nom Nom, which launched in October 2023. With smartly-liked flavours fancy ‘Naga BBQ,’ ‘Candy Chilli,’ ‘Garlic Mayo,’ and ‘Honey Mustard,’ they like a flash made their impress. Alternatively, fancy many other cloud kitchens, they face challenges.
“There are sure spices, fancy Peri Peri, that we must import because they’re not on hand in the neighborhood. If the shipment is delayed, we are in a position to not constantly provide our Peri Peri sauce. One other verbalize is the shortcoming of ample storage station for our stock which lets in us to build a shrimp amount of products handiest,” shared Ifteker Mahmud, partner at Nom Nom.
Alternatively, Nom Nom managed to train their prices 10% down due to the frequent gross sales and a imaginative and prescient to build bigger additional available in the market.
The Eastern Pickle Company originally furious about selling pickles as their title suggests. Alternatively, in 2023, they expanded into sauces, and as query surged, they won significant boost in 2024, organising a fresh presence available in the market.
“Food bloggers and customers have impartial not too long in the past embraced the vogue for dipping sauces. We gape many bloggers partaking with our sauces and encouraging others to procedure discontinuance a search at something fresh, which has tremendously amplified query,” stated Mehedi Hasan Onik, designate supervisor at Dotlines Bangladesh.
High query, power challenges
“The shrimp shelf lifestyles and the necessity for refrigeration due to the perishable components were tough to position up. Our products are all pure and free from added chemicals,” he added.
Logistics, a power verbalize for these companies, has proven to be a significant hurdle. Saus Taus, for occasion, opted for a shift from plastic to glass jars to align with buyer preferences for sustainable packaging. Alternatively, this decision came with immense charges and dangers, essentially borne by the dwelling owners themselves.
Sarker published that despite generating Tk1.2 crore in revenue, a significant 20% used to be misplaced due to the logistical concerns. Paperfly, their provide partner, steadily damaged products, although they had been marked as fragile. This monetary burden, coupled with insufficient funding, has hindered Saus Taus’ boost.
Many SMEs face identical challenges, steadily overshadowed by higher companies and lacking the compulsory authorities improve to thrive in the discontinuance. To set a sturdy market presence, sauce companies require immense funding and sturdy infrastructure to beat logistical hurdles and be sure product integrity.
