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AyRojgar

Dry fruit and nut packaging

Buying nuts and dates by the sack and selling them in small branded packets. Wholesale almonds run Tk 1,150 and cashews Tk 1,600 a kg against Tk 1,200-2,600 in packets. No BSTI CM licence, but a packaging registration certificate is required.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Starting capital
৳1,50,000 – ৳10,00,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
2 – 8 people
First sale
20 – 60 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
8 – 14 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Workshop · Easy

What the business is

Buying nuts, raisins and dates by the sack from an arot, sorting them, roasting or leaving them raw, packing them into small packets and selling them under your own name. Nothing is manufactured here - the whole job is buying, sorting, weighing, packing and getting onto a shelf. The profit is the gap between the sack price and the packet price. Look at that gap. On 28 March 2025 the Khatunganj wholesale market in Chattogram had almonds at Tk 1,150 a kg, cashews at Tk 1,600, pistachios at Tk 2,450, groundnuts at Tk 132 and raisins at about Tk 500. On 16 September 2026 Chaldal's small packets were: almonds 100 g Tk 159 (Tk 1,590/kg), Ekata almonds 100 g Tk 120 (Tk 1,200), Farmer's Gold almonds 100 g Tk 250 (Tk 2,500), cashews 100 g Tk 189 (Tk 1,890) and Nutrivita cashews 150 g Tk 390 (Tk 2,600). Dates are a separate market and an entirely Ramadan one. TCB's Dhaka retail sheet of 15 September 2026 put dates at Tk 350-550 a kg. Before Ramadan the price jumps: on 19 February 2026 Dhaka had Ajwa at Tk 1,000-1,200, Sukkari at Tk 700-800, Madina Mariam at Tk 550 and cheap Zahidi at Tk 250, and one retailer said what he used to buy at the arot for Tk 180 had become Tk 240. The good news is that nuts and dried fruit are not on BSTI's mandatory certification list, so no CM licence is needed. But declaring a weight on a pack does require BSTI's packaged-goods registration certificate under the Weights and Measures Standards Act 2018, and food authority registration is needed as well.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳1,50,000 – ৳8,00,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳1,200 – ৳2,600 / kgMarket quote
Variable cost৳1,150 – ৳1,600 / kgMarket quote
Gross margin5% – 35%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue20 – 60 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time8 – 14 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle7 – 45 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss2% – 6%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity30 – 200Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Sorting tables and trays, a digital scale, a roasting pan or roaster, a filling bench, a hand or foot-operated sealer, and optionally nitrogen flushing.Equipment
  • Almonds, cashews, pistachios, groundnuts, raisins and dates bought by the sack, plus packets, labels and cartons. The pre-Ramadan date stock is the biggest single line.Starting stock
  • Packaged-goods registration certificate from BSTI's metrology wing under the Weights and Measures Standards Act 2018, required for goods packaged for sale. Selling without it, or short-weighting, is prosecuted in mobile courts and judicial magistrate courts, with fines up to Tk 20 lakh, up to five years in prison or both.Licence
  • Bangladesh Food Safety Authority registration, compulsory for packaged food producers under the Food Safety (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2026: registration Tk 1,000, renewal Tk 500, valid three years.Licence
  • Trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Issued in 3-5 working days.Licence
  • Telling date varieties apart - Ajwa, Mariam, Sukkari, Dabas, Zahidi - and bargaining on quality. There are around forty kinds in the market and a four-to-five-fold price spread, so buying the wrong variety loses a whole season.Skill
  • A regular wholesaler at Khatunganj in Chattogram or the Badamtali fruit arot in Dhaka. Packet and label suppliers are separate.Supplier

How the work runs

  1. 1Decide what you will pack - only nuts, or dates and raisins too. The date trade is entirely Ramadan-driven; nuts sell all year.
  2. 2Go to the arot. Khatunganj in Chattogram and Badamtali in Dhaka are the two biggest wholesale markets for nuts, raisins and dates.
  3. 3Take a clean room for sorting, weighing and packing, with a dry floor and racks, and sealed against rats and insects.
  4. 4Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality and TIN and VAT registration from NBR.
  5. 5Register with the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority as a packaged-food producer: fee Tk 1,000, valid three years.
  6. 6Take the packaged-goods registration certificate from BSTI's metrology wing. Nuts and dried fruit are not on the mandatory list so no CM licence is needed, but the moment you declare a weight on the pack this certificate is.
  7. 7Bring the sacks from the arot and sort - pull out the broken, the insect-eaten and the discoloured. Skip the sorting and the customer does not buy twice.
  8. 8Roast or salt if you wish, then cool, weigh, fill and seal. Pack while still warm and steam builds inside and the nuts go soft.
  9. 9Label with weight, production and expiry dates, ingredients and batch number. For dates also print the variety, because that is what the buyer asks for.
  10. 10Buy dates and nuts at least two months before Ramadan. Arot prices jump as the fast approaches - one retailer said what cost Tk 180 became Tk 240.
  11. 11Sell through grocers, superstores, sweet shops and online. Chase gift-box makers before Eid and Puja - a single order moves a large quantity.

Seasons

  1. JanNormal
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarHigh
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunHigh
  7. JulNormal
  8. AugNormal
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctNormal
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it fits

  • Strong fitChattogram · Khatunganj is the country's biggest consumer-goods wholesale market and the source of nuts, raisins and dates for the whole country, so a unit here buys cheapest.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Retailers take their dates from the Badamtali fruit arot, and the superstores and gift-box buyers are concentrated here too.
  • PossibleCumilla · On the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, midway between the two arots, so freight can be split.
  • PossibleGazipur · An industrial area with labour and power available and the Dhaka market close by.
  • PossibleKhulna · The big southern city, with its own retail market and a growing number of superstores.
  • PossibleNarayanganj · Next to Dhaka, with cheaper rent and easy access to the Dhaka market.
  • PossibleRajshahi · A northern distribution centre from which a own-name packet can be spread through nearby districts.
  • PossibleSylhet · Remittance households have more to spend, and the expensive date and cashew packs sell better here.

Risks and cautions

  • HighWorking capital: Arot prices jump before Ramadan. Millat Hossain, a Karwan Bazar retailer, said on 19 February 2026 that dates he used to buy at Tk 180 had become Tk 240, and a Khatunganj wholesaler said nut and raisin prices rise about a fortnight before the fast. Anyone who cannot fund buying ahead buys at the year's highest price and sells on the year's thinnest margin.
  • HighDemand: Almost all date sales fall inside the single month of Ramadan. When the fast ends demand collapses, and whatever is left has to be sold slowly all year or dumped cheap. Misjudge the buying and a whole year's profit stays stuck in that stock.
  • MediumSpoilage: Nuts and dried fruit go soft in damp air, and oily nuts turn rancid. Rats and insects are the other enemy - once a sack is infested, sorting does not save all of it. Dates that develop a white sugar bloom come back from the shop as spoiled.
  • MediumCompliance: No BSTI CM licence is needed, but the packaging registration certificate is, and short weight is the commonest charge in this trade. A 100 g packet a few grams light draws a mobile court case and a fine under the Weights and Measures Standards Act 2018. Working in small packs, the accuracy of the scale is the safety of the business.

Sources

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