Salt- and pesticide-free shutki on net-covered racks fetches nearly double

More than 20 to 30 shutki yards operate on Maheshkhali, an island in Cox's Bazar; by local traders' reckoning, 20–25 per cent of the country's shutki is made here. In October 2025 The Business Standard featured an entrepreneur here who makes shutki using only the sun, without pesticides, salt or DDT. To keep flies and insects from landing, he covers the racks with mosquito netting and plastic sheets.

A worker at the yard described the process: sorting the fish by quality, washing them well, soaking them for 10–15 minutes in water mixed with turmeric and chilli, then drying them in the sun for seven or eight days in a net-enclosed room; the finished shutki is kept at minus 15 degrees. The entrepreneur vacuum-packs the shutki so that there is no oxygen in the packet and no insects or germs grow.

The result shows in the price: where regular churi shutki is Tk 1,500 a kg, the organic one is about Tk 2,600. Rupchanda is Tk 2,200–3,500 and loitta Tk 2,000–2,200 a kg. Tourists buy from the shop, and orders come in online from all over the country every day; since shutki is not perishable, there is less worry about sending it.