Fancy pigeons once worth Tk 27 lakh had to be sold for just Tk 22,000
A young man from Natore held fancy pigeons valued at about Tk 27 lakh in 2014; when new hobby buyers dried up the market crashed and they sold for Tk 22,000.
An entrepreneur who grew up in Natore kept pigeons from class six, and from 2009–10 began regularly buying expensive breeds. In a Prothom Alo podcast he said that around 2012 a pair of yellow-faced pigeons had a market price of more than Tk 2 lakh, and chicks sold for Tk 80,000 to Tk 1 lakh. He bought a pair, raised several chicks from their eggs and sold them for about Tk 2.08 lakh. Around 2014 the total market value of his pigeons reached about Tk 27 lakh. But as he explains it, pigeon keeping is a kind of hobby business; if new hobbyists do not come into the market, prices fall. Suddenly the market took a big hit. In his words, ‘The pigeons that once had a market value of about Tk 27 lakh, I ended up having to sell for just Tk 22,000.’ He then set up a farm of goats, sheep, dumba and cattle in Natore; there too, about two years later, some 32 animals died in one night from the PPR virus. Later he moved into selling agricultural products such as mangoes and honey online. His lesson: ‘You have to win when you buy.’
Lessons
- 1.Fancy pigeon prices rest on a flow of new hobbyists, not real demand; a collection's paper value is not cash.
- 2.Sell some birds while prices are high and bank the cash; do not keep all your capital locked in birds.
- 3.Paying too much at purchase makes later profit hard; much of the outcome is set when you buy.
We published this with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
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