Bamboo and cane handicraft

About the business

Splitting bamboo and cane into strips and weaving kula winnowers, baskets, poultry cages, darma matting, or bottles, mugs and pen stands for tourists. The raw material is nearby, the work is done at home and the whole household joins in, and that is the advantage. The arithmetic is the hard part. Nikhil Nomo Sutradhar of Boro Machimpur in Cumilla, thirty years in the trade, says a good bamboo costs Tk 400-500 and that one bamboo makes fifteen to twenty kula in five days. The women of that para mostly make poultry cages, about fifteen a week between husband and wife. Retailer Ripon Mia buys a cage from them at Tk 180 and sells it at Tk 200 in the markets. So a full week's work brings the pair roughly Tk 2,700, out of which the bamboo still has to be paid for. Bamboo has risen several times over while product prices have not, and cheap plastic keeps eating the demand. In the hills the picture differs: there the buyer is the tourist. At Shoilo Propat in Bandarban a bamboo bottle sells at Tk 350, a mug at Tk 150 and a pen stand at Tk 100, and sales jump when foreign visitors come. The Forest Research Institute trained several hundred artisans across the three hill districts and NGOs helped with marketing, but when the projects ended they withdrew and the producers were cut off from the market. There is no bank credit for producers, so nobody can build anything larger.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Dao, katari, knives and splitting tools, plus dye if you colour the strips. It is all handwork, and BSCIC says surviving will mean moving to some mechanisation.Equipment
• Bamboo and cane. One artisan needs five or six bamboos a month, because one bamboo is five days of work.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation, needed for regular wholesale supply or a shop: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type.Licence
• Splitting bamboo into even strips and then weaving to a pattern. The Cumilla artisans learned from their fathers and grandfathers; in the three hill districts the Forest Research Institute has run training.Skill
• A bamboo hat and grove owners. A good bamboo costs Tk 400-500 and often has to be fetched from a distant hat. Artisans say the price has risen several times over.Supplier
• The yard or verandah of the house with a dry, shaded spot. No separate workshop is needed, which is why the capital is low.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Find out first which nearby hat has good bamboo. The Cumilla artisans buy at Machimpur or Gazipur bazar, and for good bamboo they have to go as far as Muradnagar or Gharmura.
2. 2Decide what you will make. Kula, baskets, darma and poultry cages sell to villagers; bottles, mugs, vases and pen stands sell to tourists. The two have different markets, prices and seasons.
3. 3Learn the splitting, stripping and weaving. The Forest Research Institute has trained and given technical support to several hundred artisans across the three hill districts, and asking may still open a place.
4. 4Go to the district BSCIC office about small and cottage industry registration and training. BSCIC runs the clusters and fairs for this sector.
5. 5Get the dao, katari, knives and splitting tools. The verandah or the yard is enough; no separate workshop is needed.
6. 6Start with a few bamboos and keep count: how many pieces came out of one bamboo and in how many days. That count is your real wage.
7. 7Settle the rate with the local retailer. In Cumilla the shopkeeper buys a cage at Tk 180 and sells at Tk 200, and knowing that makes the bargaining easier.
8. 8In a tourist area, supply the shops at spots like Shoilo Propat, Chimbuk and Nilachal, and make to order when a booking comes. Sales rise sharply when foreign visitors arrive.
9. 9Try to get into the handicraft fairs in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Chattogram. Hill craft reached those markets before Covid, and the fairs are still the easiest way in.
10. 10Do not try to beat plastic on price. Cheap plastic is taking the demand for plain goods; the separate price comes from design, strength and the fact that it is handwork.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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