The mango market in Rajshahi is buzzing, and not only locally. Enterprising young men and women from Rajshahi and neighbouring districts have got involved in the mango trade and are selling mangoes online to buyers across the country. Rajshahi's traditional, tasty mangoes are reaching all over Bangladesh at fair prices, and buyers get formalin-free, tree-ripened mangoes at reasonable cost. Farmers, buyers and sellers all benefit.

One such young entrepreneur is Ishtiaq Asif from Sirajganj. After studying economics at Rajshahi University he is now in Italy for higher studies, but alongside that he has been in the mango business, with his wife by his side, for ten years.

Ishtiaq explained why he went into the mango trade. Stumbling along the way is normal when setting out on something new, and it was no different for him, so along with the success he also described the setbacks and fresh starts.

"I was admitted to university in 2013," Ishtiaq said. "I started a part-time job at Sun Dial, a well-known coaching centre in Rajshahi. What I earned there did not even cover my pocket money, and I was always thinking about what else I could do. Besides, since childhood I had wanted to do business when I grew up. By then mango season had arrived."

"Rajshahi's mangoes are world-famous. In the season many people would call and ask me to send mangoes, and I regularly sent mangoes to relatives. Then I thought, why not treat this as a business? By then I knew many wholesalers and orchard owners." That was how his mango business began.

At first he sent mangoes sourced from wholesalers, but later only from orchard owners. When mangoes from different orchards reach the wholesalers and get mixed together, he said, there is no guarantee of quality. At that time there was no such business through Facebook pages.

"My whole business ran over the phone and on trust. My customers were friends, relatives and people they knew. I supplied mangoes at a very small profit, and gradually the number of my customers grew."

On quality, Ishtiaq said his main aim was to supply formalin-free mangoes with the best taste. Customers who received good mangoes kept reordering. The mango season's business would cover his pocket money for the whole year, and the number of customers grew every year.

Asked about the challenges, he said the road was thorny and every business carries some risk. Five years passed like this with mangoes. When he enrolled for his master's after finishing honours, business through Facebook pages had become popular, and he wanted to do something.

"At that time I started an online business in partnership with three friends. Our products were saris, orna, three-pieces, panjabis and various craft items that we made ourselves, and we sourced saris, orna and three-pieces from wholesale markets around the country. The business grew fairly well. At some point my friends and I separated. Then at the end of 2019 my friend and I started our new venture, 'Sohojia'."

Asked why he named his online business page 'Sohojia', Ishtiaq said plainly that they want to deliver the right and best products to buyers simply. From the start, the products they made sold well. They began selling batik three-pieces, saris, orna, women's wooden jewellery, panjabis (which customers could have designed to their liking) and much more.

"We took part in many entrepreneurs' fairs and got a good response. At that time I was working as an associate researcher on an Australian government project. My friend mainly handled production, and since I could not give much time, I looked after marketing. We mainly sold local products, and mangoes in the mango season."

He said Sohojia has always given consumers the highest priority. Sometimes one or two customers would get a few bad mangoes, because after storms and rain a mango may look fine outside but be damaged inside and lose its quality. When that happens, Sohojia always sends that customer mangoes again at its own cost. That is why those who join Sohojia once see no need to go elsewhere, he said.

On future plans, Asif said he wants Sohojia to help all the local products of rural Bengal reach everyone easily, and that is the goal for now. "The partner friend I mentioned at the start of Sohojia is now my wife, Kaniz Fatema Nishita. Sohojia is the place she loves. Since I am abroad for higher studies, our page's activities are somewhat limited for now. We hope to start again in full swing soon."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.