Success and failure stories

One and a half to two lakh a bigha, but no one to sell it to

Aloe vera started on 12 shotok in Shajahanpur took about three years to come into production. A bigha now gives 250 maund at 5-25 taka a kg, worth 1.5-2 lakh a year, but no factory in the country buys from the growers directly.

Ran for

36 months

Short of mulberry leaf, the cocoon crop falls from 25-30 kg to 15-20

Thirty women in Barhar village have reared silkworms since 2004. A cycle that once gave 25-30 kg of cocoons now gives 15-20 for want of mulberry leaf, and the board buys at 350 and 400 taka a kg.

Started in 2004

500 boxes at 99-120 taka, and 30-40 lakh to build the kitchen

A commercial kitchen in Tejgaon cost 30-40 lakh taka to set up and sends out about 500 boxes a day at 99-120 taka each, taking around 10 lakh taka a month. With oil up from 115 taka to 170-180, home kitchens have had to lift their meal price from 80-90 taka to 110.

Capital

৳35 lakh

Started in 2021

Beef at 595 taka brought 50 lakh on day one, and 695 ten days later

With the market at 700-750 taka a kg, this shop opened Ramadan selling beef at 595 — more than 50 lakh taka of sales on the first day and 50 cattle slaughtered on one Friday. Ten days in, the price had to go up 100 taka to 695.

From 2 taka a glass to 10, and still only 600-700 taka a day

A glass of sugarcane juice has gone from 2 taka to 10 over ten years, but the cane has risen with it. The stall turns over 3,000-4,000 taka a day and keeps 600-700 of it.

From repair hand to garage owner, and 1,000 taka a month per rickshaw for a token

A battery rickshaw returns 300 taka a day in rent against 100 for a pedal one, which is why a repair hand opened his own garage - but each rickshaw needs a 1,000-taka monthly token to run at all.

Started in 2016

Fourteen licences, and 10 lakh taka a year just to renew them

An e-waste business started in 2001, when dead phones and computers sold at 20-30 taka a kg, now needs 14 licences and about 10 lakh taka a year to renew them.

Started in 2001

Paper up 30 per cent in a week, and the presses stop

Paper-based inputs rose about 30 per cent in a week just before the book season: white print paper up 25,000 taka a tonne to 135,000-160,000, and newsprint from 64,000 to 85,000.

A sign-painting shop from 1983, as digital printing takes the brushwork away

A hand-painted signboard shop set up in Koyra, Khulna, in 1983 has lasted more than 36 years, but digital centres have all but ended the market for brush-painted signs and banners.

Started in 1983

Orders from 2 lakh pieces a month to 50,000, and staff moved onto contracts

The Dot Sign works held on to an Italian buyer through Covid, but its monthly order book fell from around 2 lakh pieces of cloth to 50,000 or less.

A month and a half of losses, and foreign bookings made a year ahead cancelled

Srimangal has about a hundred hotels and resorts. Tourism began falling as soon as the quota protests started; foreign guests who book six months to a year ahead cancelled, putting the November-to-February peak season at risk.

In the 1990s a watch was a gift of status; now only wall clocks come in

This repairer in Satkhira has fixed watches for decades and is known locally as the watch doctor. With mobile phones ending the wristwatch market, only a little wall-clock work now comes in, and a two-person household lives on it.