After completing BA, I initially started a business of selling SIM cards of different companies. To earn some more, I thought of involving myself in fish farming alongside my existing business. Partnering with my brother, I started Sabuj Matsya Hatchery out of a hobby. I bought some species of fish fingerlings including catfish, barbel, butter fish, batasio etc. to start my journey. Unfortunately, all my fishes died and I lost all of my investments worth 12 lacs in my first attempt. 

I dived deep into finding the reason behind the death of my fishes. I kept researching and came to understand that I made crucial mistakes while buying the fingerlings. Due to poor advice given by my acquaintances, the fingerlings that I bought were of inconsistent ages. Therefore, the bigger fishes kept eating the smaller ones. Even though I lost all my money, I didn’t lose hope. 

I decided that I’d recover the losses from the very same business that caused the damage in the first place. I borrowed money from my maternal uncle, took loans from several NGOs and restarted fish farming. This time, I was more aware, more informed and more confident. My business kept growing and I never had to look back. Now, I have two employees to look after the fish pond and the hatcheries. I have also paid all my loans back. 

As the saying goes- ‘macche bhate bangali’, people in our country always feel the need to have a fish item on their plates. Therefore, fish is always in high demand here. I sell my fishes to the wholesalers who supply them around the country. My fishes are also exported to India. 

Sabuj Matsya Hatchery also has a Facebook page. While my fishes are mostly sold through wholesalers and exporters, having this page proved to be very useful. It helped me find cheaper options of fish breeding medicines. Previously, I used to physically buy them from suppliers at 2500 tk. Now, I can buy the same products at 1850 tk from online suppliers through Facebook. This saved me a great amount of cost.

I came to know about LightCastle Partners while participating in a training program arranged by World Fish. LightCastle taught us about the procedures of availing bank loans. Undoubtedly, the training sessions were very useful. It was an amazing experience to meet a lot of entrepreneurs like me from all over the country.

Due to COVID-19 lockdown, my business has been incurring losses. As borders were closed, exporters could not export fish to India. Even at this moment, I have 60-70 maunds of unsold fish. Demands for fish have dropped. Naturally, the prices have dropped as well. The usual price of butterfish used to be 15,000 tk per maund, which has recently fallen to 10,000 tk. 

Lately, the time has been difficult but one thing I learned from all these years is that I can never give up. I will be needing around 15 lacs of investments to expand my business properly. So far, I have invested 10 lacs tk to increase the number of rooms. Fish farming has become an inseparable part of my life. It has become my identity. I can confidently say, I will never let the effort, time and money go in vain that I have invested into my business.