Strawberry farming

About the business

Strawberries grown on raised beds in winter and sold from January to March. This page is here to stop losses, because two things about this crop are dangerous on their own: the price of the plants and the size of the market. Mohammad Kaisar of Chakaria in Cox's Bazar brought 4,000 American Festival plants from a Rajshahi nursery for 30 decimals of land at Tk 60 each - Tk 240,000 in plants alone, and about Tk 4 lakh in total with land preparation, fertiliser and labour. Four lakh taka on 30 decimals is the real story of this crop. He planted on 17 November and started picking on 28 January, 15 to 17 kg a day, and got up to about Tk 1,000 a kilo. Now the warning, and it is Kaisar's own. He first grew strawberries in 2007 and stopped two years later because local demand was too low, restarting only in 2021. The man who grows this fruit successfully once gave it up for want of a market. Strawberries do not keep beyond two or three days, the buyers are supershops and town fruit shops, and without those buyers lined up the crop rots in the field. Fix the buyer before you plant. That one sentence is the whole of this page.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Mulch paper, irrigation, and a raised hut for guarding. A polynet house if you want to raise your own plants for next year.Equipment
• Plants, the single biggest cost. In Chakaria American Festival plants were Tk 60 each, 4,000 on 30 decimals, Tk 240,000 in total. In Birol 15,000 plants of four varieties including Winterdawn, Festival and American Festival went on 67 decimals.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Supplying a supershop regularly normally means having a named firm and a licence.Licence
• Bed preparation, mulching, steady irrigation and picking at the right time every day. One day late and the fruit softens and the supershop sends it back.Skill
• Town supershops, fruit shops and wholesalers are the only buyers. Plants come from nurseries in Rajshahi, Joypurhat or Rangpur.Supplier
• Fertile loam to sandy loam land laid out in beds. Chakaria uses 30 decimals; Birol 87 decimals, of which 20 are a polynet house and 67 carry fruit.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Fix the buyer before anything else. This fruit keeps two or three days and does not sell in an ordinary vegetable market. Which supershop, fruit shop or restaurant will take it, how many kilos and at what price - get that settled in writing.
2. 2Do one season on a very small scale first. The Cox's Bazar grower started in 2007, stopped two years later for want of a market, and only restarted in 2021. Going in big in the first year is the biggest mistake in this crop.
3. 3Choose fertile loam to sandy loam soil and grow on raised beds. This crop does not work without them.
4. 4Plant between the last week of October and the end of November. Later than that and the plants get less cold, and more cold and fog means more fruit.
5. 5Cost the plants first, because they are the biggest expense. In Chakaria each plant was Tk 60, 4,000 plants on 30 decimals, Tk 240,000 in plants alone. Write down the variety and where they came from.
6. 6Use mulching. Mulch paper keeps the weeds down and keeps the fruit off the soil so it stays clean, and a dirty fruit is refused by supershops.
7. 7Irrigate regularly and tend the crop daily. Twelve workers were employed on 87 decimals in Birol; labour is a large cost in this crop.
8. 8Arrange to guard the field. In Birol a raised hut was built in a corner and the plot watched day and night; you cannot leave a thousand-taka-a-kilo fruit unguarded.
9. 9Pick daily and deliver daily. From 28 January it was 15-17 kg a day, and that has to reach the shop the same day. There is no way to store it.
10. 10Think about next year's plants this year. The Birol group put up a polynet house on 20 decimals to raise their own plants from runners so they need not buy from outside next year. Cutting the plant cost is the biggest single route to profit in this crop.
11. 11Treat selling plants as a separate income, but check the buyer first. People are already asking the Birol growers to reserve plants - but everyone buying plants will be selling fruit into the same small market.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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