Tracking Varietal Authentication of Rice Brands in Bangladesh: Analyzing the Path from Farm to Market

Abstract

Market traders have recently deceived consumers about the quality and fair price of rice in Bangladesh, causing serious health concerns and unintended financial losses for consumers. Therefore, this study explores the availability, market share, concentration, and traces the varietal origin of popular rice brands in the market. Moreover, it shows the food security consequences of over-polishing in the manufacture of popular rice brands. Primary data were collected through an intensive survey with rice farmers, paddy and rice traders, and millers. We employed a snowball sampling technique and evaluated 30 different supply chains as case studies to find out the varietal sources of different rice brands. The results show that BR28 was the most popular rice brand, representing about 40% of the rice available in the Upazila-level markets, followed by Miniket (17.7%), Swarna (14.5%), BR29 (12.1%), and others (15.7%). In contrast, in the city markets, the contribution of Miniket was the highest (33.5%), followed by BR28 (19.4%), Zira (19.2%), Nazir (8.5%), and others (19.4%). The traders and millers did not confirm any specific variety against the available popular rice brands in the markets. We explored the varietal origin and found that the brand name Miniket is given to every kind of rice that falls under the medium-slender-type grain category. The market traders concentrated on producing the top four to five rice brands without exercising competition. Producing rice brands by over-polishing and receiving returns from by-products are indeed a double-edged benefit for millers, whereas consumers are paying more for finer polished rice without considering its nutritional value. Therefore, strong market regulations, notably on rice milling and branding, should be enforced to protect against adverse health conditions and financial losses, and also to ensure food and nutrition security in Bangladesh.