From 300 chicks bought with Tk 900 of Eid money to four feed mills with 60,000 tonnes of monthly capacity

According to a May 2023 report in The Business Standard, in 1986 a class-seven student in the railway quarters at Pahartali, Chattogram, used Tk 900 of saved Eid money to buy 300 chicks and start a flock. After 20 weeks it gave 280-290 eggs a day, which he sold to neighbours. A dairy farm and a 2,400-bird broiler farm followed. In 1994 he took a Tk 3.5 lakh loan from Sonali Bank, repaid it in two years and borrowed Tk 5 lakh more. At one point he opened a poultry feed shop in Jhautala, and his farms grew to about 70,000 birds. Also in 1994 the business was formalised as Nahar Dairy, Nahar Poultry and Nahar Poultry Feed; Nahar Agro Complex Limited was formed in 2002. There were heavy blows: in 2004, 26,000 of 46,000 parent-stock chicks imported from France died, and bank credit froze; a Tk 70 lakh loan from a financial institution built a hatchery in Mirsarai in 2005, but that same year bird flu cut chick demand and prices. Today the group's four feed mills in Mirsarai, Sirajganj and Jashore have a monthly capacity of 60,000 tonnes; they produce 30,000 tonnes a month, 20 percent used on their own farms and 80 percent sold. They supply chicks, feed and technical help to about 10,000 farmers. More than 4,000 people work in 35 factories, and annual turnover is Tk 1,000 crore. The founder says they survive by keeping operating costs under control and reinvesting profits.