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AyRojgar

Date palm sap and gur

Tapping date palms in winter and boiling the sap into gur. In the 2025-26 season granulated gur ran Tk 350-400 a kg and patali Tk 450-600, but the work lasts only three or four months a year and the gachhi who can climb are disappearing.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
Date palm sap and gur

Date palm sap and gur

Starting capital
৳10,000 – ৳60,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 4 people
First sale
20 – 35 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
2 – 4 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Farm · Hard

About the business

Shaving the crown of a date palm in winter, fitting a spout, taking the sap down and boiling it into granulated gur or patali cakes. The work is entirely seasonal. Preparation starts in Kartik and Agrahayan: the gachhi trims the fronds, lets the cut dry, trims again, and fits the spout 10 to 15 days later, and only then does the sap run. Collection lasts about four months. Jashore has 23,30,695 date palms, but only 3,07,130 were fit to tap this season, which means six out of seven trees are never cut. The shortage is not of trees but of people. One gachhi said he used to cut 150 trees and now cuts 35 to 40; the young will not take up the work. For those who do, the money is not bad: an experienced gachhi earned about Tk 1,50,000 over three winter months from sap and gur, and daily earnings in season run Tk 800 to 1,000. Two pots of sap boil down to one kilogram of gur, and a gachhi can bring down 8 to 10 kilograms of gur a day. One thing about raw sap has to be said plainly. Nipah virus spreads through raw sap contaminated by the saliva or urine of fruit bats. Between 2001 and 2026 Bangladesh recorded 348 cases with a case fatality rate of 72 percent, in 35 of its 64 districts, and the cases cluster from December to April, which is exactly the sap season. In January 2026 a person in Rajshahi Division who had been drinking raw sap died of it. WHO says the sap should be boiled before it is drunk.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳5,000 – ৳63,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳350 – ৳600 / kgMarket quote
Variable cost৳100 – ৳180 / kgEditorial estimate
Gross margin49% – 83%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue20 – 35 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time2 – 4 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle3 – 60 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss5% – 20%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity8 – 10Practitioner verified

What you need to start

  • A sharp dao, a waist rope, earthen pots, spouts, straining cloth, a large boiling pan and hearth, and moulds for setting the gur. Prices could not be verified here.Equipment
  • Firewood or palm fronds. Two pots of sap make one kilogram of gur, so most of it goes off as steam; fuel is the second biggest cost in this work. Current prices could not be verified.Starting stock
  • 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. No separate licence is needed to tap trees; the licence is for the business of trading gur.Licence
  • The gachhi's craft: going up on a rope, shaving the crown in the right place and fitting the spout, and knowing how much cutting the tree will survive. This is the real ceiling on the business: a gachhi who used to cut 150 trees now cuts 35 to 40, and no new gachhi are coming up.Skill
  • Knowing about Nipah virus and telling the buyer. Covering the pot mouth with net or a bamboo skirt, and saying the sap should be boiled; WHO's advice is that freshly collected sap should be boiled.Skill
  • Trees fit to tap. Jashore has 23,30,695 date palms but only 3,07,130 were fit to tap this season; having trees and having tapped trees are not the same thing.Supplier
  • A place to boil: an open hearth close to the trees, because the sap cannot wait. Plus a dry room to cool and store the gur.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Settle the trees: your own or rented. Most village palms stand on someone else's land, so the arrangement with the owner has to be made before the season.
  2. 2Start cleaning the trees in Kartik and Agrahayan: trim the fronds at the crown, let the cut dry, then trim again.
  3. 3Fit the spout 10 to 15 days after the last trim. Rush it and the sap runs thin and the tree is weakened.
  4. 4Tie the pot up in the afternoon and bring it down before dawn. Once the sun is up the sap ferments and sours, and then the gur will not set properly either.
  5. 5Cover the mouth of the pot with net or a bamboo skirt so bats cannot get at it. This is not decoration: Nipah virus comes in by exactly that route.
  6. 6Boil it as soon as it comes down. WHO says freshly collected sap should be boiled, and sap left standing turns sour anyway.
  7. 7Reckon two pots of sap to one kilogram of gur. Without that ratio in your head, the firewood, the hours and the tree rent never add up.
  8. 8Decide between granulated gur and patali. In 2025-26 granulated gur went at Tk 350-400 a kg and patali at Tk 450-600; patali takes more time and care and pays more.
  9. 9If you sell raw sap, tell the buyer plainly that boiling it is the safe way, and be ready to stop that line of sales for some days whenever Nipah is in the news.
  10. 10Cool the gur and keep it in an airtight container. Gur with moisture left in it moulds within weeks and the whole batch comes back.
  11. 11Build selling around the haat days and send direct to town where you can. An experienced gachhi took about Tk 1,50,000 in three months, and much of that depends on being able to sell well.
  12. 12Rest the trees after the season and write down which ones you will cut next year. Cutting the same tree hard every year kills it, and a new palm takes years to come up.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprLow
  5. MayLow
  6. JunLow
  7. JulLow
  8. AugLow
  9. SepLow
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovHigh
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChuadanga · Date palms do well on the dry south-western soil and the harder winter brings a better run of sap.
  • Strong fitFaridpur · An old gur district, with a warning attached: IEDCR puts Faridpur top of the country for Nipah cases at 71. Selling raw sap here carries the highest risk, and boiling it into gur is the safe route.
  • Strong fitJashore · The country's gur centre: 23,30,695 palms in the district, 3,07,130 fit to tap this season, and a season target of about Tk 120 crore of sap and gur.
  • Strong fitJhenaidah · Sits inside the same gur belt as Jashore, with both trees and gachhi, and easy access to the Jashore wholesale haats.
  • PossibleKushtia · Hard winters and trees are here; the local gur haats are small but there are links to wholesalers in Jashore and Dhaka.
  • PossibleMagura · Trees and gur are here but with few big haats of its own the stock has to go to Jashore or Dhaka.
  • PossibleMeherpur · A dry border district with trees, but with few gachhi many trees stay uncut.
  • PossibleNatore · A north-western gur area where date gur is made alongside cane gur, so wholesale buyers are close at hand.
  • PossibleRajbari · Trees and gachhi are here, but Rajbari is second in the country for Nipah cases at 30, so retail sale of raw sap is risky.
  • PossibleRajshahi · The dry weather suits the trees, but in January 2026 a person in this division died of Nipah after drinking raw sap, and official warnings come fast here.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDependency: Without a gachhi the trees give nothing. Of Jashore's 23,30,695 date palms only 3,07,130 were cut this season. One gachhi said he used to cut 150 trees and now cuts 35 to 40. The work is dangerous, nobody is training anyone, and the young will not take it up, so even a man with trees has to chase a gachhi before the season.
  • HighDemand: One Nipah report and the raw-sap trade stops. Between 2001 and 2026 Bangladesh recorded 348 cases with a 72 percent fatality rate, across 35 of 64 districts, and the patients come between December and April, the sap season. In January 2026 a person in Rajshahi Division who had drunk raw sap died on the day of admission. In a year with news like that, the retail raw-sap market simply does not open; the gur market survives, because gur is boiled.
  • HighSpoilage: Sap lasts hours. Brought down at dawn, it ferments and sours once the sun is up, and sour sap does not make good gur. So taking it down, carrying it and boiling it all have to be finished in one morning. If the hearth is far or the firewood has run out, that day's sap is lost.
  • HighOther: The work is physically dangerous. Going up on a rope in the dark before dawn, shaving the crown with a sharp dao, on a wet trunk: a fall costs the treatment and the earning at the same time. Gachhi have no insurance, and reports name the danger of the work as one reason the young stay away.
  • HighWorking capital: A year's income has to be taken in three or four months. Collection runs about four months and the other eight bring nothing from this work. Tree rent, pots and firewood are paid before the season starts, which is exactly when there is least money in hand.
  • MediumDemand: The gur price moves within the season. Early on the sap is scarce and the price is high; in the middle, when everyone boils at once, the haat price falls. Only those who can dry the gur properly and hold it in airtight containers can wait for the price to come back.

Sources

What changed

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Stories about this business

Mixed experienceA date palm sap tapper in Bauphal, Patuakhali, in a BSS report

Down from 30-35 trees to 16, and from 15-20 litres of sap a day to 4-6

He once tapped 30-35 date palms for 15-20 litres of sap a day; now 16 trees give 4-6. The price has risen from 50-60 taka a litre to 100-120, but the lost volume is larger than the price gain.

Reasons
Supplier problem, Weak demand

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