Introduction

Plum is very common in Bangladesh. It can easily be found in both urban and rural areas. In
Barisal city, this fruit is very available. It is generally available in market from mid December to
March. This fruit is mostly produced in south-west areas in Bangladesh. This fruit is relatively
cheap than any other fruits available in Bangladesh. People of all classes like this fruit most.

Mature plum fruit may have a dusty-white coating that gives them a glaucous appearance. This is
an epicuticular wax coating and is known as "wax bloom". Dried plum fruits are called dried
plums or prunes, although prunes are a distinct type of plum, and may have antedated the fruits
now commonly known as plums.

Plums are a diverse group of species. The commercially important plum trees are medium-sized,
usually pruned to 5–6 meters height. The tree is of medium hardiness. Without pruning, the trees
can reach 12 meters in height and spread across 10 meters. They blossom in different months in
different parts of the world; for example, in about January in Taiwan and early April in the
United Kingdom.

Fruits are usually of medium size, between 1 to 3 inches in diameter, globose to oval. The flesh
is firm and juicy. The fruit's peel is smooth, with a natural waxy surface that adheres to the flesh.
The plum is a drupe, meaning its fleshy fruit surrounds a single hard seed.

Obstacles within Plum Supply Chain

 Every stage of the plum intermediaries want to maximize their profit margin. This creates a
lack of co-ordination and have negative impact on supply chain. Within the supply chain of
plum, mainly Bapari and Arotdar determine the price level of plum by changing the supply
amount. They do not show any consideration to other party of the supply chain.
 In Barisal, plum is mainly transported by trucks. This mode of transportation is very costly.
Along with this, a huge quantity of plums gets rotten at time of transportation by truck.
 Weather is a vital factor for plum production. Early rain in the winter season, foggy weather
and lower temperature cause much harm in the production and transportation of plum.
 Here the local plum businessmen do not consider consumer demand rather than they put
more emphasis on the amount of production. For this, at the time of lower production, they
fail to meet up consumers demand.
 Very weak storage facilities are found in Barisal. Lack of storage facility causes a huge
damage of plum.
 Recent political instability is another big issue for plum marketing in Barisal. Sometimes the
producers cannot send their plum in Barisal from production places because of hortal and
strike. This causes a high transportation cost. According to the arotdars of Port Road, now
they have to pay 28000 taka as rent for each trip of track that was only 22000 taka before
current political crisis.

Recommendations

 A well co-ordination should build among different intermediaries of the supply chain.
 Information flow among the parties of supply chain should be built in the supply chain.
Well information infrastructure should be made in distribution system.
 Local businessmen in Barisal should pay more concentration on storage facility. By this
way they can reduce the damage of plum in a great extent.
 Government should pay more concentration on political instability because this creates
more harm on supply chain of plum.
 We can build up some related business as plum pickle to provide customer a different
taste of this common fruit.

Conclusion

Barisal is a perfect market for plum business. As there is no local commercial production of
plum, we have to meet up the local demand of plum transported from south-west part of
Bangladesh. So, local plum manufacturing can be most beneficiaries for both the local business
people and customers. Though there are many problems and obstacles in the current supply chain
of plum business in Barisal, they can be overcome by developing and taking different strategies.