Began with two mussels in a rooftop tank; sold Tk 2 lakh of pearls in a year

In 2020, a young man from Ektarpur village in Abhaynagar upazila, Jashore, was in class ten when schools closed because of Covid. He watched pearl farming in mussels on YouTube and tried it out with two mussels in the water tank on the roof of his house. When that succeeded, he collected about 500 mussels from canals and beels, keeping 300 in the rooftop tank and 200 in a relative's pond. In 2022 he took three days' training from the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, visited farms in Naogaon and Kotchandpur, and set up his own farm at the end of the year. He inserts designed images into the mussels, keeps them in water for 7–11 months and then harvests the pearls. Each A-grade pearl sells wholesale for Tk 500–600; overall prices range from Tk 100–150 up to Tk 600, and the buyers are mainly jewellery businesses that do design work. In his words, 'I sold Tk 2 lakh of pearls in one year. Making those pearls cost around Tk 30,000 to 40,000 in all.' On top of that, pond rent is Tk 15,000. He also sells images, nets and mussels. Nineteen workers work on the farm for wages of Tk 400–500 a day. He has 7,500 mussels in two ponds and 3,000 on the roof, and hopes to sell Tk 6 lakh of pearls from them.