reading ~/.bashrc variable

1) I've added a variable called IMPORT_HOME to my ~/.bashrc file:

IMPORT_HOME=/import:$IMPORT_HOME

2) I sourced the bashrc file:

source ~/.bashrc

3) In my bash script, i tried to echo out the IMPORT_HOME variable but it doesnt print out '/import/, only whitespace:

#!/bin/bash
echo $IMPORT_HOME

can anybody help?

try export IMPORT_HOME=...

it worked! thanks!