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Shunned by most people in Muslim-majority Bangladesh where pork consumption is a religious taboo, pig farming is becoming popular for the growing demand for pork among people of other communities and foreigners.
Rearing hog was common among ethnic minority communities in Chittagong Hill Tracts and northern districts of Rangpur and Mymensingh and by cleaners in most of the district towns but pragmatic breeders came forward to commercial farming of pigs in recent years.
Breeders and butchers said pork is mostly consumed by Christians and the ethnic minority groups and the demand peaks during festivals like Christmas, Biju, Bishu or Bihu, Baisuk, Wangala and during any family celebrations like marriage ceremony or similar occasions. There is also little demand for pork among members of the Hindu community.
Some star-rated hotels and few upmarket restaurants also procure pork to meet the demand of their customers, mostly foreigners, but the amount is not significant compared to domestic consumption, they said.
Josep Almudéver visited Bangladesh few years ago. He was certain that he would not find pork or liquor in the Muslim country but to his surprise his hosts served him both.
In Dhaka, there is a small pork market at Farmgate which is mostly frequented by the Christian community members residing nearby areas. Pork retails there at Tk 350 to Tk 400 per kilogram.
Rodro Biswas sells pork at the Farmgate market for the past eight years. He brings pork from Gazipur farms and sells it in the locality. He also has a home delivery service.
Sajal Rozario inherited the pig breeding business from his father. Their farm in Gazipur supplies 700 slaughtered pigs weighing 30 to 40 kilograms each to market every month.
Sajal said his annual supply of pork is around 4.2 lakh kilograms.
There is no formal association of the pig breeders or butchers but Sajal said there was informal communications among them. Despite a prospective export market, Bangladeshi breeders are yet to be interested in it mainly for bureaucratic tangle. “Still our domestic demand is huge and we sometimes struggle to meet the demand during the festivals,” said Sajal.
Shusanta Kumar has been breeding pigs at Kapasia in Gazipur for the past eight years. He has around 300 pigs and requires two workers to manage the farm. He began the farm with four pigs he collected from Dinajpur at Tk 42,000 and the next year there were 13 pigs on his farm as pigs breed twice a year.
“After rearing for one and a half year, piglets become suitable for sale and they can be sold at Tk 10,000 each,” said Shusanta.
Sushanta said breeding pig commercially is also popular in Jashore, Khulna, Rajshahi, Dinajpur, and Gopalganj.
Santu Mandal of Kaura Para in Jashore is a major breeder in the Khulna-Jashore region. He has 500 pigs on his farm.
He supplies 100 slaughtered pigs weighing 45-40 kg each every month to local markets and restaurants in the Jashore-Khulna region.
Santu Mandal said breeders in Jashore now meet most of the country’s pork demand.
Arpon Chakma studied culinary science and runs a restaurant in Dhaka and a houseboat on Kaptai Lake. He said compared to the thin non-Muslim population in Bangladesh, consumption of pork is much higher and pork is the most popular red meat which could be compared with beef among Muslims.
He said the indigenous communities prefer the local variety of hogs to farm-breed pigs and they are ready to pay high for it. “Pork from CHT is sold at Tk 500 per kg in Dhaka but the farm-breeds are sold at Tk 350,” he said. The most demanded pork is of wild boars but they are not available in the market because of provisions in the wildlife Act, he said.
Breeders said only open space along with large puddles is required for rearing pigs. Pigs eat corn, porridge, boiled arum, lotus stem and root, some kind of wild potato, wheat bran, and other vegetables.
Raising pigs is not expensive, it requires Tk 60 to 70 for a pig per day and an adult pig needs two to three kg meal per day, they said.
Consumption of pork is prohibited in Islam and Judaism. The global market of pork was 114.4 million tonnes in 2020, according to the Business Wire.
