My first model of dipping sauce used to be in 2015 when I reluctantly tried chicken wings with ranch—a pleased 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 trade in Bangladesh has gone via main trend. Households luxuriate in moved beyond stocking factual tomato ketchup and chilli sauce, embracing plenty of flavours and experimenting with fusions of flavours.
When eateries like Takeout, Chillox and Madchef burst onto the Dhaka meals scene, they launched plenty of sauces on a mighty increased scale; and of us instant developed a model for these unique flavours.
On the different hand, sourcing these sauces used to be a converse. They weren’t on the market for hold locally and the actual chance used to be to web imported products, which of us did, despite restricted accessibility and high costs.
Recognising this hole, a wave of sauce enthusiasts conducted market be taught and started getting into the market with instant trial runs.
“All of it started in 2020 when my trade accomplice created achari chilli with tetul, inspired by the uncommon recipes his mom would web—flavours generally point out in Bangladeshi households. He started a condo trade, letting pals and household pattern it, and opened a Fb crew where alive to of us could seemingly space orders,” shared Nomrota Sarker, accomplice and chief operations officer at Saus Taus.
The obvious response precipitated Sarker to place end a leap of religion. Intrigued by the functionality in this budding market, she hand over her job as an analyst in a enterprise capital company in 2021 and joined her accomplice within the sauce trade, without a design of taking a explore aid.
In line with The Monetary State, Bangladesh imported meals worth Tk105,000 crore in 2023, with sauces and condiments accounting for 5% of this entire, amounting to approximately Tk5,000 crore.
Currently, 70% of these sauces and condiments are imported from Singapore, India and Thailand. The final 30% of the market is dominated by local brands much like Ruchi, Pran and others, even supposing their focus is on tomato ketchup or chilli sauce excellent.
“The imported products did not charm to many Bangladeshi tastes. The imported mayonnaise alternate choices, for occasion, lacked the localised flavours—much like honey mustard or garlic mayo—that Dhaka’s restaurant chains had popularised. Members were actively searching for these familiar, localised tastes, and our flavours successfully met their seek recordsdata from of for ‘restaurant-vogue’ alternate choices,” Sarker added.
In September-October 2021, Saus Taus launched four to 5 flavours to the market, gaining main traction. Their success ended in a collaboration with Chillox, which placed an present for 100 litres of sauce. On the different hand, as piece of the agreement, these sauces were no longer licensed to be supplied individually to customers.
“Saus Taus is the main condiment alternate choices mark in Bangladesh that launched with flavoured mayo and sauce and sooner or later desires to handbook in varied condiments like curry sauce, marinades, mixes and many others,” Sarker emphasises.
Any other indispensable sauce mark within the market is Nom Nom, which launched in October 2023. With favorite flavours like ‘Naga BBQ,’ ‘Candy Chilli,’ ‘Garlic Mayo,’ and ‘Honey Mustard,’ they instant made their mark. On the different hand, like many varied cloud kitchens, they face challenges.
“There are certain spices, like Peri Peri, that we must import because they don’t seem like on the market locally. If the shipment is delayed, we can’t continuously offer our Peri Peri sauce. Any other converse is the inability of enough storage position for our inventory which lets in us to web a restricted amount of products excellent,” shared Ifteker Mahmud, accomplice at Nom Nom.
On the different hand, Nom Nom managed to tell their costs 10% down attributable to frequent gross sales and a vision to magnify further within the market.
The Jap Scrape Company before all the pieces excited about selling pickles as their name suggests. On the different hand, in 2023, they expanded into sauces, and as seek recordsdata from of surged, they received main mumble in 2024, setting up a fresh presence within the market.
“Food bloggers and customers luxuriate in only within the near past embraced the trend for dipping sauces. We perceive many bloggers enticing with our sauces and welcoming others to place end a explore at one thing unique, which has considerably amplified seek recordsdata from of,” acknowledged Mehedi Hasan Onik, mark manager at Dotlines Bangladesh.
Excessive seek recordsdata from of, chronic challenges
“The restricted shelf life and the need for refrigeration attributable to perishable system had been aggravating to place watch over. Our products are all natural and free from added chemicals,” he added.
Logistics, a chronic converse for these companies, has confirmed to be a chief hurdle. Saus Taus, for occasion, opted for a shift from plastic to glass jars to align with buyer preferences for sustainable packaging. On the different hand, this decision got right here with huge costs and risks, essentially borne by the house owners themselves.
Sarker published that despite producing Tk1.2 crore in earnings, a chief 20% used to be lost attributable to logistical disorders. Paperfly, their shipping accomplice, generally broken products, even supposing they were marked as fragile. This financial burden, coupled with insufficient investment, has hindered Saus Taus’ mumble.
Many SMEs face connected challenges, customarily overshadowed by increased companies and missing the main government enhance to thrive in due route. To place a stable market presence, sauce companies require huge funding and sturdy infrastructure to beat logistical hurdles and make certain product integrity.
