Online mango sales from Tk 600 in 2017 to about Tk 1 crore of farm products a month

According to a Prothom Alo report, a young man from Baraigram, Natore, studying at Dhaka Polytechnic, could not adjust to city food and used to bring spices from home. That is when he realised Dhaka has a large market for safe food. In 2017, at his friends' request, he bought mangoes locally and began selling them online with just Tk 600. In winter he added Natore's date-palm jaggery. After seeing demand at a farm-product outlet in Badda, he opened an outlet in Mirpur in 2017 itself, but had to close it during Covid and later restarted in Banasree. Now more than 300 products, from rice, lentils, spices and ghee to meat, milk and seasonal fruit, sell for about Tk 1 crore a month; annual sales exceed Tk 20 crore. There are four outlets: two in Banasree and one each in Uttara and Bogura. The firm has 47 direct employees, 150 contract farmers and sources from 500 farmers. Sales to other brands and superstores now exceed sales at its own outlets. The company's assets are over Tk 4 crore. He plans 30 outlets nationwide in five years, but calls financing a major problem.