SME and craft fair calendar Bangladesh 2026–27: dates and venues

When are the SME and craft fairs in Bangladesh in 2026–27?

The next big one is the 13th National SME Product Fair, from 22 to 28 November 2026 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Agargaon, Dhaka. January 2027 is crowded: the Dhaka International Trade Fair runs from 1 to 31 January in Purbachal, and the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela moves to 7 January to 6 February. BSCIC, the government's cottage industries body, holds a craft fair somewhere almost every month.

If you make things by hand and want a stall, our pick is the SME fair or a BSCIC fair, where buyers come looking for local work and you're there for a week, not a month. The trade fair is better for a day out than for a small maker's first stall.

Fair calendar 2026–27 at a glance

Dates with a year are announced. The others are the usual month, from last season's edition.

When is the National SME Product Fair 2026?

From 22 to 28 November 2026, at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Agargaon, Dhaka. The SME Foundation runs it, about 400 to 450 entrepreneurs are taking part, and the Prime Minister is due to open it and hand out the National Entrepreneur Awards.

• What's on sale: only goods made in Bangladesh. Imported goods, garment stock-lots and goods bought for resale aren't allowed. At the 2025 fair, nearly 60% of the 350 or so stalls were run by women.
• Hours and entry: in 2025 the fair was open from 10am to 9pm every day, and entry was free.
• Getting there: MRT Line 6 to Agargaon station is the nearest metro stop.
• Loans: banks set up desks at the fair. In 2025 about 30 banks and finance companies took part, and entrepreneurs could apply for SME loans on the spot.

Go early in the week if you're buying: the best pieces from small makers sell first.

When does the Dhaka International Trade Fair 2027 start, and how long does it run?

It opens on 1 January 2027 at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre in Purbachal and runs the whole month, to 31 January, on the Export Promotion Bureau's schedule. The 2026 fair opened two days late, on 3 January, and still closed on 31 January.

The 2026 fair had 329 participating organisations and sold about ৳393 crore of goods. It's mostly brands, furniture, electronics, textiles and food, with some stalls set aside for cottage, handloom and handicraft makers.

Tickets, hours and getting there

These are the 2026 figures; the 2027 ones go up on the DITF website.

• Tickets: ৳50 for adults and ৳25 for children under 12, sold online with a QR code at the gate. Freedom fighters, people with disabilities and those injured in the July uprising went in free.
• Hours: about 10am to 9:50pm, and to 10pm on weekly holidays.
• Shuttle buses: no metro reaches Purbachal. BRTC ran shuttles from Kuril (৳40), Farmgate (৳70), Gazipur (৳75), Signboard and Narsingdi (৳100) and Chashara (৳120). The first bus left at 8am, and the last return trip was at 11pm.

From most of Dhaka, the quickest route is the metro to Farmgate, then the shuttle. Go on a weekday afternoon: Fridays and Saturdays are packed.

When are the BSCIC fairs in Dhaka and the districts?

Almost every month somewhere. BSCIC's chairman announced in October 2026 that it plans to hold a fair every month. In Dhaka they're held at BSCIC Bhaban in the Tejgaon industrial area, usually for five to seven days, 10am to 8pm. They follow the seasons: a honey fair at the start of September, the Sharat Mela in October, the Bijoy Mela in December, the Poush Mela in January, a jamdani and craft fair in March, the Baishakhi Mela in April and the Barsha Mela in July.

The district fairs run ten days each, mostly in November and December and again from April to June. The next is in Patuakhali, at the DC Square ground from 5 November 2026.

BSCIC fairs in the divisional towns, 2025–26

Use last season's dates to plan, and confirm with the district BSCIC office.

What about Pohela Boishakh, the Boi Mela and the Dhaka Art Summit?

• Pohela Boishakh fairs. Around 14 April, the SME Foundation's Baishakhi Fair (12 to 18 April in 2026, ৳30 a day entry) and BSCIC's Baishakhi Mela are the biggest for local makers. BSCIC's April 2026 fair had 154 stalls, its largest of the year.
• Amar Ekushey Boi Mela 2027. From 7 January to 6 February 2027, a month early because publishers asked to keep it out of Ramadan; the 2026 fair ran from 26 February to 15 March, during Ramadan. It's a book fair: stalls go to publishers, by Bangla Academy's lottery.
• Dhaka Art Summit. A free, non-commercial exhibition, usually in February at the Shilpakala Academy, with nothing for sale. The last full summit was in February 2023. Its seventh edition, TONDRA, has run as commissioned works through 2026, and the Samdani Art Foundation has said the summit reopens to visitors after the 2026 election.

How do you get a stall, and what does it cost?

At the SME Foundation fairs

Apply online on the SME Foundation's service platform when the call opens; for the 2026 fair it opened in September. Direct applications aren't accepted. For 2026:

• Who could apply: micro, small and medium entrepreneurs selling 100% locally made products.
• Stall fees: ৳25,000 for an 8 × 8 ft single-faced stall, ৳10,000 more for a corner, and ৳40,000 for an open food stall, paid by pay order after selection.
• Reserved stalls: a share went to women, new, creative, eco-friendly, regional and indigenous entrepreneurs, and those from disadvantaged groups.
• Timeline: applications closed on 15 October 2026, and the selected list went up on the SME Foundation's Facebook page by 22 October.

The SME Foundation also runs divisional SME fairs, which take applications through the same platform.

At BSCIC fairs

Go through your district BSCIC office; in Dhaka, that's BSCIC Bhaban, 398 Tejgaon Industrial Area. The Dhaka fairs mix makers trained at BSCIC's design centre with makers from the districts, and the October 2026 fair set aside 7 of its 60 stalls for GI products such as jamdani, shital pati and nakshi kantha. Register with your district office early in the year, so you're on the list when a fair is called.

At the Dhaka trade fair

The Export Promotion Bureau allots stalls and pavilions online. Most of the 300-odd spaces go to companies and brands. Small makers should ask about the stalls reserved for women, people with disabilities and cottage, handloom and handicraft entrepreneurs, and remember that a trade fair stall needs someone in it every day for a month.

Is a fair stall worth it?

Often, if you pick the right fair. BSCIC's own figures for 2025–26 show 36 fairs, 1,832 stalls and about ৳24 crore of sales: on average about ৳1.3 lakh per stall per fair. The spread is wide. The district fairs in Jamalpur, Kushtia and Patuakhali (November) sold over ৳3 lakh a stall, while Jashore and Jhenaidah sold under ৳50,000. Dhaka's Bijoy Mela in December 2025 came to about ৳75,000 a stall.

Do the sum before you pay. Say you make ৳300 profit on an average sale. A ৳25,000 SME fair stall needs about 84 sales to cover the fee alone, 12 a day over seven days, before transport, a helper, food and the stock you carry home.

To make the stall pay:

• Bring depth, not range. Ten of your best-sellers sell better than one each of thirty things.
• Price every piece clearly. People walk past a table where they have to ask.
• Light it and lift it. A clip-on light and a box or two to raise pieces to eye level make a plain table look like a shop.
• Take bKash and Nagad as well as cash, with the QR code on display.
• Collect every buyer's phone number or page follow. A buyer who meets you at a fair often orders again online, and that's where most of a fair's value comes from.

How do you keep selling between fairs?

A fair lasts a week; the rest of the year needs somewhere to sell. Most makers run a Facebook page and add a marketplace. Our guide to where to sell handmade products in Bangladesh compares every option, how to sell handmade products online covers photos, pricing and couriers, and handmade business ideas covers what sells. If you're weighing Daraz, read our Daraz seller fees guide first.

JADUZ is one of those places, and it's ours. We vet every maker before they list, market their work, collect the cash through the courier and pay makers out, so you can keep making while we handle buyers and delivery. See how selling on JADUZ works.