Fruit wholesale arot

About the business

An arot that unloads truckloads of fruit and sells them by the crate to retail shops and van hawkers. Dhaka's biggest fruit arot is Badamtoli in Old Dhaka: roughly 100 trucks come in a day, each carrying Tk 35-40 lakh of goods, and about Tk 40 crore of fruit changes hands daily. Trucks start arriving from 1am and trading runs from 6:30am to noon - it is all over by then. Goods come through Chattogram port, Benapol, Hili, Bhomra and Burimari from more than thirty countries, and local fruit comes from Satkhira, Naogaon, Jhalokathi, Pirojpur, Tangail and the hill districts. The number that actually decides this business is spoilage, and it is the one nobody states honestly. One wholesaler said finding four or five kilos of rotten fruit in a crate of malta happens to them 'quite often' - and an Egyptian malta crate is 15 kg, which makes that 27 to 33 percent. Research puts post-harvest loss at 30-35 percent for mango and 25-30 percent for banana, papaya, guava and litchi. One rule is worth knowing: under government rules a retailer may add 15 percent to the wholesale price, and under the Agricultural Marketing Act 2018 taking profit above the fixed rate, or trading without a licence, can bring a year in jail or a Tk 1 lakh fine.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Scales, crates and baskets, a hand trolley, and a sorting area to separate rotten from sound fruit. Chilling reduces the loss but most arots have none.Equipment
• A truckload of fruit. At Badamtoli one truck carries Tk 35-40 lakh of goods. Working on commission, the importer owns the goods and you do not need that money - but the profit stops at the commission.Starting stock
• Agricultural marketing licence from the Director General, Department of Agricultural Marketing. Section 5 of the Agricultural Marketing Act 2018 bars acting as a market trader in a notified market without one; section 6 bars running a warehouse or cold store without one; section 9 bars transferring the licence. Term, renewal and fee are set by rules (section 8) and the fee could not be verified here.Licence
• Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, usually in 3-5 working days.Licence
• Judging by eye how much of an opened crate is rotten, and knowing how many days each consignment has. An arotdar who does not count the rot cannot tell at year end where the money went.Skill
• Fruit importers and their agents; transport from Chattogram port, Benapol, Hili, Bhomra and Burimari; and in season, growers and middlemen in Satkhira, Naogaon, Jhalokathi, Pirojpur and the hill districts.Supplier
• Space inside the market with truck access, an open area for unloading and a shaded room for the crates. At Badamtoli trucks unload from 1am and selling runs from 6:30am to noon.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Decide first which kind of arotdar you will be - buying goods yourself and selling them, or selling an importer's goods on commission. The capital and the risk are completely different.
2. 2Take space inside the market. Truck access, a place to unload and shade for the crates - a fruit arot does not work without those three.
3. 3Take the licence from the Department of Agricultural Marketing. Section 5 of the Agricultural Marketing Act 2018 bars acting as a market trader in a notified market without one, and section 6 bars running a warehouse without one.
4. 4Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality and a TIN from the NBR.
5. 5Fix your suppliers. Imported fruit comes through Chattogram port, Benapol, Hili, Bhomra and Burimari; local fruit comes from Satkhira, Naogaon, Jhalokathi, Pirojpur, Tangail and the hill districts.
6. 6Arrange the porters and fix the rate in advance. At Badamtoli the rate is Tk 30 a carton and a porter earns Tk 600-700 on a good day.
7. 7Fit your day to the trucks. At Badamtoli they start arriving from 1am and trading runs from 6:30am to noon. Unload late and the day's goods do not sell that day.
8. 8Open every crate before quoting, and write down how much was rotten. Four or five kilos of rot in a crate is not unusual here, and without that record you cannot tell profit from loss.
9. 9Separate the bruised and soft fruit and release it cheap - to juice shops, van hawkers or people who make pickles. Selling low loses less than throwing away.
10. 10If you give credit to retail shops, write down the amount and the date. A new truck has to be paid for every day, so money stuck in credit stops the next one.
11. 11Follow the import duty. On 9 January 2025 supplementary duty on fresh fruit went from 20 to 30 percent and on dried fruit from 30 to 45 percent, after which wholesale imports fell 20-25 percent. Check whether those rates have since changed.
12. 12Respect the profit limit. Under government rules a retailer may add 15 percent to the wholesale price, and under the Agricultural Marketing Act taking more than the fixed rate, or creating an artificial shortage, is an offence.

Sources

• কৃষি বিপণন আইন, ২০১৮ (২০১৮ সনের ৪৪ নং আইন) — ধারা ৫, ৬, ৮, ৯, ১৬, ১৯, ২৬

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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