Started with 600 taka, now the business is crores of taka

In 2017, he started his business by selling mangoes online. Mahmudunnabi Sohag. This young man from Baraigram upazila of Natore now sells more than three hundred agricultural products worth about crores of taka per month. These products are sold from a total of four branches, including three in Dhaka. Starting from seasonal fruits, he also sells different products around winter or Eid. In total, the annual sales amount is more than 20 crore rupees.

47 people have been directly employed in Sohag's company named 'Shatmul Agro'. And there are 150 contract farmers. Apart from this, the institute collects various types of agricultural products from 500 farmers. Through this initiative, this young man has created a great response in Baraigram Ahmedpur of Natore.

The products sold by the company include - rice, pulses, spices, ghee, own farm beef, buffalo, chicken, duck and quail meat. Apart from this, hundreds of agricultural products including milk, shrimp fish, date molasses, laccha semai, mango, various seasonal fruits. Apart from producing in their own farms, the company procures agricultural products from local farmers. In addition to its own outlets and online sales, Shatamul Agro supplies products to various supershops and band shops in the country.

The company has a total of four outlets, two in Banshree, Uttara and one each in Bogra. Shatamul Agro has a rice mill, mustard mill, curd and milk factory at Sherpur in Bogra. There are buffalo and fish farms in Baraigram. Dapunia in Pabna has cattle, sheep, duck and chicken farms.

how to start
Sohag, who came from the village to study in Dhaka, could not match the city food. So this student of Dhaka Polytechnic used to bring spices from home regularly. Then he realized that there is a big market for safe food in Dhaka. During the mango season, many people wanted Rajshahi mangoes. Then the business started by buying mangoes from the area and selling them as a hobby, that too for only 600 taka, that too in 2017. Within a decade, the assets of the company are more than four crore rupees.

After starting a business with mangoes to meet the needs of his friends, Sohag thought of what else to sell after the end of the mango season. Later he started selling Natore's famous date molasses during the winter season. After two products, he went to an agricultural product outlet in Badda and saw the huge demand for various products. Seeing that, he opened an outlet in Mirpur in 2017. But it has to be stopped during Corona. Banashree started again when the outbreak of corona subsided. Later, new products were added to the outlet one after another. The number of outlets is also increased. However, the sales to different brands and businesses are now more than to own outlets.

Founder and Chief Executive of Shatamul Agro. Mahmudunnabi Sohag said to Prothom Alo, 'We want to open 30 outlets across the country within 5 years to deliver safe food to everyone. For that, we are planning to increase the amount of production and export.

Job Opportunity in Village
Through the agricultural revolution in Baraigram, Shatamul Agro has changed the condition of not only itself, but also the youth and farmers of the village. Sohan Jannat is working in the marketing and supply department of the company. He is studying in the second year of Nawab Sirajuddaula College, Natore. Earlier, working in an organization in Dhaka, I got a salary of 18,000 taka, but it was difficult to send money home after spending. And now this student is getting a salary of more than 10 thousand rupees sitting at home. So he told Prothom Alo about his satisfaction with work and studies. In this way, Shatamul Agro has provided employment to several young people in the village.

Apart from this, the local farmers no longer have to chase loans for the advance money of the plantation. The company has arranged contract farming with the farmers. Farmer Russell Mia of Ahmedpur in Baraigram is now cultivating turmeric, pineapple, banana, orange turmeric and sugarcane on four acres of land. He is also happy to get the price of the crop. Many farmers are now turning to new cash crops.

Safe Agriculture
When asked about the difference between Shatamul products and other agricultural products, they said about safe agriculture. That is, to produce in a systematic way without using fertilizers or excess pesticides. Entrepreneur Sohag said, "First we saw that sugar, lime, dyes and chemicals were mixed while making date jaggery. We said, jaggery should be made without these. We don't care about what it looks like. Later we started making safe jaggery with advance money. In this way, we make mustard oil broken in a wooden ghani. Apart from that, we are cultivating vegetables organically by taking land lease for three years in Tangail.

Sohag also said that 2 percent of the country's daily food market is now not covered by safe food. Hence there are many opportunities to increase the share of safe agriculture in agricultural food products. Funding is a major problem in this regard. Therefore, he demanded to provide loans from various funds formed for small entrepreneurs. Mahmudunnabi Sohag