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AyRojgar

Beekeeping and honey

Keeping bees in boxes and harvesting honey. Honey runs Tk 650-1,200 a kg depending on the flower, but bottling under your own name needs BSTI certification with a Tk 7,500 test fee.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Beekeeping and honey

Beekeeping and honey

Starting capital
৳60,000 – ৳5,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 6 people
First sale
30 – 135 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
6 – 14 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Farm · Hard

About the business

Keeping bees in wooden boxes and taking the honey. In Bangladesh it happens in two quite different ways. The first is migratory: the boxes travel, standing beside mustard fields in winter, litchi orchards in spring, then black cumin or coriander. The bees bring in the nectar, the keeper hauls the boxes from one field to the next, and when the flowering ends the colony has to be fed sugar syrup to survive. The second is Sundarbans honey, where collectors go into the forest in groups and cut natural combs. That is gathering, not keeping, and it cannot be done without Forest Department permission. Price follows the flower. On 16 September 2026 online listings ran mustard flower honey at Tk 650 a kg, litchi at Tk 700, black cumin at Tk 1,150, kholisha at Tk 1,150 and Sundarbans honey at Tk 1,200, while the government's own e-commerce platform sold Palli Modhu at Tk 450 for 500g, which is Tk 900 a kg. Bottling it under your own name brings rules: honey is on BSTI's mandatory certification list (BDS 1039:2022), the sample test fee is Tk 7,500, and the licence takes 19 to 94 working days. Selling loose to a trader needs none of that, but fetches roughly half. That is the real fork in this business: whether your own name goes on the bottle.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳25,000 – ৳2,00,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳580 – ৳1,200 / kgMarket quote
Variable cost৳250 – ৳450 / kgEditorial estimate
Gross margin57% – 63%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue30 – 135 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time6 – 14 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle30 – 150 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss5% – 15%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity2 – 22Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Wooden hives and frames, wax foundation, a honey extractor, strainers, a smoker, veil and gloves, and food-grade containers or bottles. Prices could not be verified here.Equipment
  • Sugar to feed the colonies through the dearth season, at Tk 110-115 a kg (TCB, 15 September 2026). How much sugar per box could not be verified here.Starting stock
  • Packaged-commodity registration certificate from BSTI's Metrology Wing under the Weights and Measures Standards Act 2018, required when a declared weight is sold in a bottle. Selling without it carries up to Tk 20 lakh in fines and up to five years in prison. The fee could not be verified.Licence
  • Food Safety Authority registration as a packaged food producer: Tk 1,000 new, Tk 500 renewal, valid three years.Licence
  • Collecting honey in the Sundarbans requires Forest Department permission, with passes for collectors and a fixed season. The fee, validity and application process could not be verified here and must be checked with the divisional Forest Office.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
  • BSTI CM licence. Honey is item 34 on the mandatory list (BDS 1039:2022). New application fee Tk 1,000, sample test Tk 7,500 over 14 working days or Tk 15,000 urgent over 4, and an annual CM fee of 0.10 percent of production value with a Tk 3,500 floor. Required as soon as it is bottled under a brand.Licence
  • Recognising and replacing the queen, preventing swarming, spotting disease and mites, and knowing when the honey is ready. Starting without training usually means losing colonies in the first season.Skill
  • An understanding with the owners of the flowering land to place boxes in mustard, litchi, black cumin or coriander fields, and a truck or van to move them.Supplier

How the work is done

  1. 1Decide which path: moving boxes from field to field, or collecting in the Sundarbans. The skills, the costs and the law are entirely different for the two.
  2. 2Take hands-on beekeeping training. BSCIC and the Department of Agricultural Extension run beekeeping courses; ask the local office where and when.
  3. 3Start with a few boxes. Adding boxes before you know how many you can handle in a season kills colonies, and a dead colony costs more than the box did.
  4. 4Build a flowering map: which flower opens in which district in which month, and settle with the landowner in advance. Turning up in season to look for a spot does not work.
  5. 5Arrange the haulage: truck or van, night movement, and keeping the boxes cool on the road. Moving the boxes is the riskiest part of the job.
  6. 6Set sugar aside for the months after the flowering ends. Colonies have to be fed syrup to survive, and sugar is now Tk 110-115 a kg, which is the main cost of the empty season.
  7. 7Get an extractor, strainers and clean containers. Honey with too much moisture ferments and loses its price.
  8. 8Decide early whether you sell loose to a trader or in your own bottle. The trader pays cash but pays less; bottling gets close to double, but needs the licence and the testing.
  9. 9To sell in bottles, take the trade licence, trademark registration and Food Safety Authority registration (Tk 1,000, three years).
  10. 10Apply to BSTI for the CM licence: Tk 1,000 application fee, Tk 7,500 to test the honey sample (Tk 15,000 urgent), and an annual CM fee of 0.10 percent of production value with a Tk 3,500 floor.
  11. 11Take the packaged-commodity registration certificate from BSTI's Metrology Wing; it is required the moment a weight is printed on the bottle.
  12. 12Record the flower, the date and the place of every batch. When a buyer asks which flower the honey came from, that written record is what makes the price difference.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarHigh
  4. AprHigh
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepLow
  10. OctLow
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitBagerhat · The eastern Sundarbans, source of kholisha and goran honey, where the Sundarbans name alone lifts the price to Tk 1,150-1,200 a kg.
  • Strong fitDinajpur · The litchi district: boxes travel here for the spring blossom, and litchi flower honey sells at Tk 700 a kg.
  • Strong fitKhulna · The collection and marketing centre for Sundarbans honey, with small bottling operations based here.
  • Strong fitSatkhira · The western Sundarbans, where the collectors' villages are and where the Forest Department permissions are handled.
  • Strong fitSirajganj · Extensive mustard and black cumin on the Jamuna chars, one of the main winter box-placing areas.
  • Strong fitTangail · Large areas under mustard in winter, and close enough to Dhaka to haul boxes easily.
  • PossibleFaridpur · Good mustard and black cumin acreage, with the Dhaka market close.
  • PossibleJashore · Heavy flower and vegetable cultivation, and close to the Khulna bottlers.
  • PossibleMagura · Large mustard fields in winter, though with few local buyers the honey has to go out of the district.
  • PossibleThakurgaon · Both litchi and mustard, with space easier to find than in Dinajpur.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDependency: Income rests entirely on the flowering. Less mustard sown, litchi blossom dropping, or unseasonal rain and that season's honey does not come, while the cost of boxes, bees and labour still runs. If the landowner gives the spot to someone else you are left mid-season with boxes and nowhere to stand them.
  • HighOther: Losing colonies is the biggest loss in this trade. Pesticide sprayed on the field wipes out a box in hours and the farmer does not warn you first. Disease, mites and swarming take colonies too, and replacing them costs both money and time, with no income in between.
  • HighDemand: So much adulterated syrup is sold as honey that ordinary buyers do not trust even the real thing. The honest producer pays for that distrust, selling at Tk 650 a kg while tested, certified, bottled honey moves at Tk 1,150-1,200. Without BSTI certification that gap cannot be crossed.
  • MediumCompliance: Bottling under your own name puts honey inside mandatory certification. The sample test alone is Tk 7,500, the licence takes 19-94 working days, and a failed sample means paying again. For a small keeper that cost and wait is the real barrier to the bottled market.
  • MediumSpoilage: Honey extracted while still too moist ferments and sours and can no longer be sold as food, and dirty containers or sun exposure do the same. The damage shows up weeks later, not the same day, and by then the whole batch comes back.

Sources

What changed

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Stories about this business

What workedA beekeeper in Sharsha, Jashore, in a Bangla Tribune report

250 hives, 2.5 to 3 lakh taka a year

Beekeeping since 2007, now about 250 colonies. Each box yields around 2 kg of honey per collection, and after all costs the year brings 2.5 to 3 lakh taka.

Reasons
Working capital, Strong network

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