Hortex Foundation launches online market for fruits, vegetables

Hortex Foundation, a state-sponsored agency promoting export of horticultural crops, on Wednesday launched its online market for fresh fruits and vegetables to facilitate both farmers and consumers to shop safe food during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the initiative, various seasonal fruits such as mango, jackfruit, pineapple, litchi, guava and aromatic rice are sold along with vegetables.

Consumers will be able to place orders from the site—hortexbazarbd.com—and pay the bill using debit, credit cards and mobile financial services like bKash, Nagad and Rocket, the agriculture ministry said in a statement.

Shoppers will be able to collect their purchased goods from the Hortex Foundation office in Dhaka. Steps for home delivery have also been taken, according to the statement. Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque inaugurated the site through a virtual programme where Agriculture Secretary Md Nasiruzzaman was also present.

"We have to increase the popularity of fresh produce domestically, ensure their sales and establish developed market infrastructure if we want to boost exports," said Razzaque.

This online market for agricultural produce will play a vital role to increase exports, he said.

Expansion of exports is the main goal of the e-commerce site, Nasiruzzaman said.

This will also play an important role to market fruits and vegetables and enable consumers to get farm produce easily staying at home, he said.