Shrimp farming (gher)
Farming bagda and golda in embanked saline ponds. Fry has gone from Tk 1,300-1,700 to about Tk 3,000 per thousand this season and southern hatcheries have fallen from 78 to 37.
- Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
- Version 1
- Starting capital
- ৳1,50,000 – ৳6,00,000 Editorial estimate
- Manpower
- 1 – 5 people
- First sale
- 90 – 150 days Editorial estimate
- Break-even
- 14 – 30 months Editorial estimate
- Kind of work
- Farm · Hard
What the business is
Building an embanked pond (gher) on saline land and farming bagda (black tiger) or golda (freshwater) prawn. It feeds thousands of families in Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat, and it is the highest-risk farming page on this site. In FY 2024-25 Bangladesh produced 299,000 tonnes of shrimp on 262,000 hectares, roughly 400 kg per hectare, against about 6,800 kg per hectare in Ecuador; exports were 23,238 tonnes worth US$296.29 million. Note that most of what is farmed is not exported: of 123,151 tonnes produced in the Khulna region, only 19,512 tonnes were exported and the rest sold at home. The shock this season is fry. A thousand fry cost Tk 1,300-1,700 last season and about Tk 3,000 now; southern hatcheries have fallen from 78 to 37, and Satkhira's 66,760 ghers face a shortfall of about 2.64 billion fry. When fry doubles, the whole season's arithmetic changes. On top of that around 75 percent of processing plants are idle and the export cash incentive is being cut from 8 percent to 5 percent. Rising salinity ruins the land, one virus outbreak can empty a gher, and a buyer who finds antibiotic residue sends the container back. Understand all of this before you put savings into it.
Unit economics
| Item | Range | Evidence | Suggest a correction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly working capital | ৳5,600 – ৳12,900 | Editorial estimate | |
| Selling price | ৳798 – ৳1,358 / kg | Market quote | |
| Variable cost | ৳450 – ৳750 / kg | Editorial estimate | |
| Gross margin | 6% – 67% | Editorial estimate | |
| Time to first revenue | 90 – 150 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Break-even time | 14 – 30 months | Editorial estimate | |
| Cash cycle | 100 – 180 days | Editorial estimate | |
| Waste / loss | 50% – 70% | Editorial estimate | |
| Daily capacity | 1.5 – 5.5 | Editorial estimate |
What you need to start
- Nets, a water pump, a salinity meter, lime, and a way to ice the catch the moment it is lifted.Equipment
- Bagda or golda fry. About Tk 3,000 per thousand in the 2026 season, against Tk 1,300-1,700 the previous season.Starting stock
- Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation: 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
- Fish farmer registration and shrimp e-traceability, Department of Fisheries. The farm and farmer are entered into the government database through the upazila fisheries office; export requires showing which gher the shrimp came from. No fee is published.Licence
- Fish Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) clearance, Department of Fisheries, Dhaka/Khulna/Chattogram. The exporter holds it, not the farmer, but the antibiotic, heavy metal and microbial tests are run on the farm's shrimp, so a bad result comes back on the farmer too.Licence
- Measuring salinity and pH, recognising disease, and knowing grades. Price is set by count per kilo, and this is where farmers most often lose out.Skill
- A hatchery or fry trader. Southern hatcheries are down from 78 in 2011-12 to 37; Satkhira needs 3.4455 billion fry a year against a hatchery capacity of 800.6 million.Supplier
- An embanked pond with a sluice gate and a channel for water in and out. There are over 55,000 marine shrimp farms in the country, averaging about 3 hectares.Workspace
How the work runs
- 1Look at the land. Saline water in and out, a bank high enough to embank, and a working sluice gate. Without these three a gher does not work.
- 2If the land is not yours, put the lease terms in writing: how many years, how much a year, and who pays to repair the embankment when it breaks.
- 3Register as a fish farmer at the upazila fisheries office and get the gher into the shrimp e-traceability system. Exporters now avoid buying from unregistered farms.
- 4Take the trade licence from the union parishad or municipality.
- 5Dry the gher, remove the sludge, lime it and let water in. Measure salinity and pH — this is the most important job before stocking.
- 6Fix a hatchery or fry trader and book early. Fry hit Tk 3,000 a thousand this year and Satkhira got less than a quarter of what it needed — book late and there will be none.
- 7Ask for PCR-tested fry before stocking. Virus-carrying fry ends the whole season, and you cannot tell by looking.
- 8Keep a written record of every feed and every treatment. Do not use antibiotics. If a foreign buyer's test finds residue the container comes back, and the loss falls on the whole area.
- 9Net out the larger shrimp every few weeks rather than harvesting everything at once. Staged harvesting keeps cash moving.
- 10Ice it the moment it comes out and get it to the depot. Black heads cut the price, and a few hours' delay is enough.
- 11Stand over the weighing and grading at the depot and keep the slip every time. Grading is what farmers and traders argue about most.
- 12At the end of the season drain the gher, dry the soil and check how much salt has built up. Rising salt means a smaller crop next year.
Seasons
- JanLow
- FebNormal
- MarNormal
- AprNormal
- MayNormal
- JunHigh
- JulHigh
- AugHigh
- SepHigh
- OctHigh
- NovNormal
- DecLow
Where it fits
- Strong fitBagerhat · Fakirhat upazila alone has 8,004 commercial ghers and 2,608 ponds; with Khulna and Satkhira these three districts supply about 90 percent of export shrimp.
- Strong fitJashore · Golda country and a processing base, directly linked to the Khulna depots.
- Strong fitKhulna · The centre of the trade. The region produces 123,151 tonnes and the processing plants are here, though only 10-12 of nearly 30 run steadily.
- Strong fitSatkhira · 66,760 ghers and a fry market worth over a billion taka, but also the worst fry shortage: hatcheries cover less than a quarter of demand.
- PossibleBarguna · Coastal gher country, with a high risk of embankments breaking in cyclones and surges.
- PossibleCox's Bazar · Hatchery country and coastal ghers; much of the fry supply starts here.
- PossibleGopalganj · Freshwater golda country; no salinity, so less risk of ruining the land.
- PossibleNarail · An old golda area, close to the Jashore plants.
- PossiblePatuakhali · Saline water is there, but the plants are far away so the price is lower.
- PossiblePirojpur · Coastal saline water, but the big buyers and depots are in Khulna, so it has to travel on ice.
Risks and cautions
- HighDependency: Fry shortage. In the 2026 season a thousand fry went from Tk 1,300-1,700 to about Tk 3,000, roughly double. Southern hatcheries are down from 78 to 37. Satkhira needs 3.4455 billion fry a year against a hatchery supply of 800.6 million, a shortfall of 2.6449 billion. Two things follow: the price rises, and farmers are pushed into buying untested fry from wherever they can.
- HighCompliance: Foreign buyers' tests and paperwork. The Department of Fisheries quality control lab tests shrimp for antibiotics, dyes, mycotoxin, heavy metals and microbes. One missing line on a certificate stops a shipment: in October 2022 nine containers worth about US$2 million were held at Felixstowe in the UK because three conditions were left out of the certificates. The case is old but the pattern has not changed, and whoever makes the mistake, the price falls on the farmer.
- HighDemand: The buying side is shrinking. Of about 200 BFFEA member plants only 25 percent are running and 75 percent have suspended; in Khulna 10-12 of nearly 30 are working steadily. The export cash incentive is also being cut from 8 percent to 5 percent. Fewer plants means a weaker price at the depot.
- HighSpoilage: Disease. A virus can kill a gher within days and take the whole season's money. One outbreak in Batiaghata, Khulna cost 250 farms more than Tk 150 million, over Tk 600,000 a farm on average. National yield is only around 400 kg per hectare, and traditional bagda less, so there is no cushion to absorb an outbreak.
- HighWorking capital: Prices drop suddenly and cash gets stuck. In January 2023 shrimp fell by Tk 300-700 a kilo within two months while a 25 kg sack of feed rose from Tk 3,600 to Tk 4,325. Costs rise first and prices fall after, and the farmer is caught in between. Only about a sixth of Khulna region output is exported and the rest goes to the home market, so when the domestic price falls there is nowhere to turn.
Sources
সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ
Collected: 16 Sept 2026Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ
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