Success and failure stories

A 6-8 taka loss on every kilo, and 95,000 sacks still sitting in store

Potatoes stored in the hope of a rise cost 18-19 taka a kg all-in while the market fell to 11-12. Of 125,000 sacks stored, about 95,000 were still unsold.

Fire takes the saree shop and both godowns, and the loss figures do not agree

A canal-side saree shop and both its godowns burned in Bhola. The owner put the loss at 25-30 lakh taka; the Fire Service put it at 15-20 lakh.

A 4 a.m. fire takes the shop, and the owner puts the loss at 15-20 lakh taka

A short circuit burned out a grocery shop in Raiganj, Sirajganj, with everything in it; the owner put the loss at 15-20 lakh taka.

The land route closed, a 400-worker hosiery factory shut, and the owner went under

A bank-financed hosiery factory employing about 400 people closed after overland exports to India stopped. Across the district's roughly 3,000 units, about 65 percent of more than a lakh of workers are now out of work.

Two of 33 ice mills still running, and five winter months of straight loss

Chandpur once had 33 ice mills running; at the time of the report only two were. Ice goes wholesale at 160 taka a can, and demand disappears for five straight winter months.

A 7,500-taka batch returns 2,300, and a bag-making village falls from 550 families to 35

Sixty kg of paper yields 70 kg of bags: 7,500 taka in, 9,800 out, 2,300 taka of profit. With polythene back in the markets, Kagojipara has gone from more than 550 bag-making families to 30-35.

No gas connection, costs 30 percent higher, and a 21,000-kg-a-month factory closed

A factory averaging 21,000 kg of aluminium utensils a month closed around 2015. Denied a gas connection, its production costs ran more than 30 percent above gas-fired rivals.

Five hours a day without power, 3,000 taka of wages, and takings that fall short

This welding workshop in Maijdee opens for nine hours and has no electricity for about five of them. Three employees cost 3,000 taka a day in wages, and the day's work often does not reach 3,000 taka.

Fairs cancelled: 90,000 taka of toys spoiled, and another 60,000 left unsold

Three months of fairs from Chaitra to Jyaistha are this wooden-toy trade's entire market. One year 90,000 taka of toys spoiled in store; the next season's 60,000 taka of borrowed stock went unsold too.

Capital

৳60k

Flights stopped, and a two-crore export year turned into a one-crore loss

This agar-attar factory in Sujanagar, Barlekha, exports about 2 crore taka of product in a normal year. With Middle East flights grounded in Covid, 2020 ended with a loss of roughly 1 crore taka.

3 lakh taka of debt, and 112,500 looms shut across the district

A cash crunch is closing looms in Belkuchi and nearby upazilas of Sirajganj. One weaver carries 3 lakh taka of debt; 112,500 looms are shut and about 225,000 workers are out of work.

Land sold to clear the loan, then Covid closed a 21-year-old unit

A unit of 18 workers sending jackets and t-shirts to India, Nepal and Bhutan. A 5-lakh-taka bank loan had been cleared by selling land; after two months shut from March 2020, the 21-year-old business closed for good.