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Farmer Usman Gani of Haripur village under Kalmakanda Nazirpur union in Netrakona district benefits from rambutan cultivation.
Rambutan is one of the foreign fruits that are gaining popularity in Bangladesh.
Usman Gani left his job as a labourer 13 months after moving to Malaysia in 1992 and returned home with rambutan fruit's seeds. He now sells the fruit from two trees for over Tk 0.1 million (one lakh) a year. Besides, he is making a profit by selling small seedlings for Tk 3,000 to Tk 3,500.
He hopes to be able to collect about 300 kgs of rambutan from two trees this year as he does every year. He is currently selling the fruit at Tk 400 per kg.
He said, "At present, I have a total of 12 rambutan trees. Moreover, there are more than a hundred foreign and native fruit trees, different varieties of roses, and different species of trees in his orchard. However, my main source of income is rambutan fruit."
He also said, "The fruit looks like litchi. However, it is larger in size than litchi, oval in shape, slightly flattened. Ripe fruits are bright red, orange or yellow in attractive colours. The original source of this fruit is Malaysia and Indonesia. Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei and Sri Lanka produce large quantities of rambutan fruit.