A covered dryer handled 500 kg a batch, but energy costs shut the shutki business

In 2019 a few friends in Cox's Bazar started a shutki business in which, instead of drying in the open field, they used an electric dryer. The dryer's chamber could dry up to 500 kg of fish in one batch. Because it was covered and ventilated, cleanliness was maintained during drying, and no smell spread.

But the problem was cost. One of the entrepreneurs told The Business Standard that they could never compete in the market with traditional shutki producers who dry in the open field, because fuel costs pushed up their production cost. So in 2023 they stopped the shutki business and moved into drying and freezing fruit.

The results there were not encouraging either. Although dried pineapple got a good shelf life, the market response was disappointing — in his words, in season, when fresh fruit is available cheaply, nobody wants to eat dried fruit. In the same report, a professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University said industrial dryers on the market cost from Tk 60,000 to several lakh taka; even leaving aside the electricity bill, the initial price alone is beyond the reach of many entrepreneurs.