Success and failure stories

From 50 workers to 15, from export toys to bags for the home market

Before March 2020 the factory made jute toys for export and employed 50 people. After the pandemic the workforce fell to 15 and the product changed to bags for the domestic market; no lender would advance credit because her bank account showed too little turnover.

60-70 taka of profit a piece, yet workshop owners are leaving batik

Kamalpur village turns over 40-45 crore taka a year across 15-20 batik workshops. One owner makes 60-70 taka a piece, but the cost of cloth and chemicals and a shortage of artisans are pushing others out of the trade.

Jackfruit biscuit, 20-25 kg a day at 850 taka a kg, with no BSTI standard to meet

Two months into trial production the biscuits sell 20-25 kg a day at 850 taka for a one-kg box, but buyers call them too sweet, too fragile and too expensive, and BSTI says jackfruit biscuit is not on its biscuit standards list at all.

Ran for

2 months

Fog kept the bees in, and 2,000 taka came off every box

In a normal week 150 boxes give 10 maunds - about 800 kg - of honey worth 130,000 taka. Fog and a minimum of 9 degrees kept the bees inside, knocking about 2,000 taka off boxes normally worth 10,000 each.

55,000 taka of cost against 2.5 lakh of sales, and still no labour

Three kiyar of cane cost about 55,000 taka this season against 100,000 taka already sold and another 150,000 expected. Juice sells at 60 taka a litre, gur at 250 and lali at 220 - the problem is not price but finding anyone to cut the cane.

Capital

৳55k

After a cyclone and the river, a sweet shop rebuilt on a 60,000-taka loan

Cyclone Amphan on 20 May 2020 wrecked the shop and the house, and the Kopotakkho river later took the homestead. A 60,000-taka loan last year rebuilt a small sweet shop, against a 3,000-taka monthly instalment.

Capital

৳60k

Cloth gave way to a pitha cart, and 500-600 taka a day

Unable to fund restocking, he left the cloth trade for a bhapa pitha cart: 6-7 kg of rice flour a day, 25-26 pithas from each kilo at 10 taka each, and 500-600 taka left after expenses.

Down from 30-35 trees to 16, and from 15-20 litres of sap a day to 4-6

He once tapped 30-35 date palms for 15-20 litres of sap a day; now 16 trees give 4-6. The price has risen from 50-60 taka a litre to 100-120, but the lost volume is larger than the price gain.

A 25-30 percent bigger crop, and income halving from 8 lakh to 4

Five hundred areca nut trees brought about 800,000 taka last year. This season the trees yielded 25-30 percent more, but wholesale prices fell 60-65 percent, and he expects no more than 400,000.

A bigha of dragon fruit that sold for 10 lakh now brings 3-3.5

He started in 2017 when dragon fruit was still scarce in Bangladesh. In the early years a single bigha sold about 10 lakh taka of fruit; by the 2025 season the same bigha brought 3 to 3.5 lakh.

Started in 2017

7,000-10,000 taka to build one floating bed, and seedlings down from 8-9 taka to 2

This farmer works 15-16 floating beds, each 60-foot bed costing 7,000-10,000 taka to build. During the COVID period seedling prices fell from 8-9 taka the year before to as little as 2.

Half the first batch lost, now 50,000-60,000 taka a month

He started with 35,000 taka saved from freelancing and 500 quail chicks, losing about half of it for want of training. The farm now holds 1,500 birds and 900 eggs a day, leaving 50,000-60,000 taka a month after costs.

Capital

৳35k