Karwan Bazar Wholesale Kitchen Market

Karwan Bazar, under Dhaka North City Corporation, is one of South Asia's largest wholesale kitchen markets, described as housing over a thousand shops (a 2002 record noted about 1,255 stores; the current figure to be verified). Fish, meat, vegetables, eggs and daily foodstuffs converge here from across the country, with active early-morning wholesale trading; a long-standing government plan to relocate the market to Gabtoli has not yet been implemented.

The market runs on bulk fresh-produce wholesale, with restaurant chains, supermarkets and neighbourhood wholesalers buying before dawn every day. For Chinese exporters of processed foods, condiments, grain and oil products, and packaging equipment, it offers insight into Bangladesh's food distribution channels and price structure, and access to food import wholesalers who service restaurants, hotels and neighbourhood grocery shops across the capital.