Cross‐country study on food consumption patterns and rice away from home: The case of Bangladesh

Abstract As with most Asian countries, rice dominates Bangladesh in terms of food production and consumption. However, with sustained increase in income, persistent commendable GDP growth, urbanization, and significant reduction in poverty, people tend to consume more diversified food, ready to eat food, and food away from home. The findings from this study, based on data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, lend support to this consumption propensity and indicate that with time rice is becoming cheaper and animal and plant foods are getting dearer and expensive. This implies that the national agricultural policy of Bangladesh must recast to match the future food demand of people and to meet the increasing challenge of reversing the rising prices of non‐staples including animal…