Started with 100 coconuts for Tk 8,000; now 24-25 thousand coconuts and Tk 25 lakh in sales a month

In early 2022 two friends in Dhaka started selling coconuts online. They had earlier sold various products online. After seeing videos of coconuts cut so the water stays inside the shell, as in Thailand and Vietnam, they placed a Facebook ad with a few photos of cut coconuts. When people responded, they bought 100 coconuts from Karwan Bazar for Tk 8,000, their starting capital, and delivered them on their own bike. At first they cut by hand with a knife, so after a while they spent about Tk 6 lakh on a cutting machine from China. Lacking experience, they often misjudged which coconuts were tender, sweet-watered or already forming kernel, and many were wasted. Once, a thousand coconuts ordered from Noakhali arrived just as continuous rain began, and about 600 went unsold. They turned those into coconut-water pudding, which is now popular. Because wholesale lots had 20 small coconuts in every 100, they put their own money into a coconut stall at Karwan Bazar. Today 24-25 thousand coconuts a month are sold. A carton of six costs Tk 840 for medium and Tk 960 for larger ones, plus Tk 100 delivery. Clubs, gyms, hospital canteens and pharmaceutical companies are customers. The report says total investment is about Tk 10 lakh, average monthly sales Tk 25 lakh, and the staff number 12.