Home ›› 22 Jan 2023 ›› Business Connect
Simply put, the growth of Sadeeq Agro since its inception one and a half decades ago can be a complete business management school for any newcomers in the farming and dairy business.
Its owners have faced numerous challenges, learned from every step and mistake, followed through with diversification and better management strategy, and gathered every type of knowledge on the way to becoming one of the country’s biggest cattle-fattening and dairy farms.
In the beginning, they did not know how to rear cattle, how and where to keep them properly, fend off diseases, or even what are the best cattle feed.
It also took years to learn to utilise the products they were producing, including how to preserve milk, what to do with the unsold milk and how to distribute the goods.
They did not know how to preserve milk for more than one day when they started, but now they know how to preserve sweets made from milk for six-nine months and are even exporting butter and sweetmeats to the US.
In the field of cattle fattening, Sadeeq Agro now holds the top position in Bangladesh.
It all started in 2007 when five friends came together to do something meaningful. They bought 45 cows and planned to sell them at the Gabtoli cattle market during Eid-ul-Azha to have a taste of the business. In 2008, three of the five established Sadeeq Agro.
Now, in the 15th year of business, the farm sells more than 4,000 fattened cows every year with an annual turnover is over Tk 70 crore. Around 350 people work in all of the company’s existing entities.
Along with producing and selling meat and milk, they have created bakeries, eateries, and vegetable and fruit gardens. They have also introduced poultry, fisheries, pigeon farming, and even sell organic fertiliser. All these are done on 750 bighas of land across the country.
Sadeeq Agro is now a complete farm and food processing industry that needs no outsourcing to continue production. It may seem like a miracle, but the small cattle farm has managed to become a giant in 15 years.
“We are fully self-sufficient in production and there is no need to outsource anything. Now, we only depend on imports when it comes to some spices needed to cook our biryani,” Mohammed Imran Hossain, the chairman of Sadeeq Agro Limited, said with a proud smile while talking to The Business Post recently.
The journey
Sadeeq Agro’s journey to the top was not easy as it faced numerous obstacles. With undying determination and innovative minds at nonstop work, the founders managed to overcome the challenges and thrive.
After facing a huge loss during their first attempt at cattle trading in 2007, two of the five friends decided to leave the business. However, Imran and the two others did not quit and took on the challenge.
“The caretaker government was in power at that time. There was a rumour that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is carrying out special drives at the cattle markets. No one wanted to buy big cows at a higher price and risk getting arrested by ACC for having undisclosed wealth. We only managed to sell seven cows and incurred a huge loss,” Imran said.
“Since we had no shed to keep the unsold cattle, we had to sell all of them at low prices following that Eid. Afterwards, we thought that if we had a farmhouse to keep the cattle throughout the year, we can earn a lot instead of suffering from losses. That’s when we decided to take the initiative and started by creating a shed to keep the cattle,” he said.
In 2008, they registered Sadeeq Agro as a limited company and started rearing dairy cows for milk production instead of fattening by inaugurating their farm in the capital’s Mohammadpur area.
He continued, “On our first day, we got a huge amount of milk from our seven cows. We had no idea where we could sell this milk and ended up giving that milk to our relatives for free. We even had to hire vehicles with our own money to deliver it to the relatives’ houses.”
“The next day we got the same amount of milk but we took that to Atibazar, a market in Keraniganj. But no one bought from us even at Tk 25 because of the syndicate there. We had to rethink our strategy. We then started packing the milk and delivering it to buyers’ homes with an ice cream van. We sold the milk at Tk 45 per litter,” Imran said.
However, after they received complaints about the milk quality a week later, they felt the need to store the milk longer and bought chilling and filling machines. This was the first mechanisation at the farm.
In 2009, they rethought cattle fattening and bought 35 thin cows. They fed them well and took proper care before selling them during Eid-ul-Azha. Ten of them sold directly from the farm and the rest at the cattle market, leading Imran and his friends to huge profits.
In the meantime, the demand for milk from their farm increased a lot. By the end of 2009, the farm had 50 dairy cows and 70 cows for fattening.
Currently, they have many types of dairy and fattening cows on their farms, including Sahiwal, Sindhi, Brahman, Andro, Brazil, Jersey, Angola, Rajasthani and Hallikar.
Learning curve
Imran said, in the beginning, they had started bringing cows to the farm directly from the haats. “We didn’t know about viruses and diseases and as a result, 13 dairy cows got sick and 11 calves died.
“Sellers had told us that each dairy cow will give 20 litres of milk every day. But they were giving 5-6 litres a day. Two of the cows, which we bought at Tk 2.8 lakh, were not even giving any milk. We had to sell them at Tk 80, 000 only,” he said.
In 2011, they suffered a huge loss again as trade at cattle markets was down and the farm was struggling due to a lack of management knowledge and skill. That crisis led another friend to leave the company.
But Imran and his childhood friend Touhidul Alam, who is currently the company’s managing director, did not lose heart and decided to carry on with more determination than ever.
“We had no one who could teach us about these things. But we never thought about quitting. Whenever we got stuck, we diversified quickly and continued our business,” Imran said.
He continued, “At the time, we had four employees looking after seven cows. But it was not economically viable. We had to figure out how many cattle can one person look after and started moving on from there.”
Right now, they have 1,600 cows — both bulls for fattening and dairy cows — and 110 employees look after them in two massive sheds at the farm. They also have 100 local cows for offspring.
Between 2011 and 2015, they continued with cattle rearing, selling milk and fattened bulls. At the time, they found that they are left with unsold surplus milk after meeting the customers’ demand every day.
“We started thinking about what we can do with that surplus milk. From there, we started making different types of local/traditional sweets and yoghurt with the unsold milk in 2015,” Imran said.
After getting major responses from customers for those, they have started exporting butter and sweetmeats to the US recently. The amount is not that big yet but they consider this a massive achievement, he said.
“I am also grateful to a US buyer who has taught us how to preserve sweets for at least six-nine months. We are now thinking about expanding our export portfolio,” he added.
The farm currently also has 350 goats for milk and meat production and at least 1,500 poultries for egg production. They also have a significant number of pigeons and ducks.
Each day, they get around 2,700 litres of milk from 320 dairy cows and sell around 1,500 litres. The 1,200 litres rest goes to sweets production.
Imran said, “Nowadays, doctors are prescribing goat milk for cancer patients. Its demand has gone up. We are also struggling to meet the demand for pigeons. Sometimes buyers even pay in advance for them.”
Taking advantage of Covid lockdown
Sadeeq Agro’s cattle fattening business has significantly grown over the years. Along with bulls and cows, they now also sell various types of cattle, including goats, sheep, fat-tailed sheep (commonly known as dumba) and camels, which can be used as sacrificial animals during Eid.
“Since the beginning, if anyone wanted, we also slaughtered bulls or cows, cut the meat and deliver them to their home. It was very rare at that time. But the demand for this has risen in recent times,” said Imran.
They currently have six fattening projects in different districts outside Dhaka. Every week, they now prepare around 12 tonnes of meat. Ten tonnes go to a buyer and nearly two tonnes remain unsold.
When the whole country went into lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, milk and meat production did not stop, he said.
“So we started taking orders online for both and started home delivery services amid the lockdown. We were keeping the surplus meat frozen along with the milk. But people seemed to avoid buying frozen meat.
“That’s when we decided to launch cooked food products made with the surplus meat. Our first product was Tehari. Then we made and sell Singara with beef liver, Samosa, several types of biryani including Kacchi, and many other items. The response was very good,” Imran said.
Now the company has five outlets around Dhaka city for its savoury, bakery and sweetmeat products.
The demand for slaughtered cattle increased a lot during the lockdown. They received orders online for various social programmes, including weddings and Akika. “We slaughtered the cattle and delivered the packed meat to the customers. At present, we receive at least 50 orders for Akikas every year,” said Imran.
“One of our biggest opportunities came that year as well when I received a call from Savar Cantonment one day. They asked me to take care of most of the slaughtering of sacrificial animals at my farm and deliver the meat to officers’ houses inside the cantonment during the Eid-ul-Azha.
“Obviously, I took on the challenge. We slaughtered 424 cows and 660 goats and delivered them properly. This was a huge win for us,” he added. “Then, I also offered the shared Qurbani option to our customers. The number of orders is rising every year.”
More diversification
In 2021, Sadeeq Agro started their agriculture projects and in 2022, poultry farms. Currently, they have a huge 450-bigha leased agricultural land in Savar Cantonment, where they grow over 20 types of vegetables.
They do not store any vegetables at their sale centre or conduct any marketing in traditional markets or super shops. Instead, they take orders on the spot, gather the vegetables from the gardens and sell them directly. Most of the customers are army officials and staff due to the placement of the farm.
Sadeeq Agro also has fisheries projects. They do commercial breeding of multiple types of fish and sell them directly to the customers. Customers place orders on the spot and farm employees sell them after catching the fish from the ponds in front of them.
“Seeing the gathering of the products live and then choosing and buying — people love this. This excites them. We are getting more customers over time,” said Imran.
Apart from vegetables, the farm has various types of fruit trees, including thousands of banana and papaya trees for commercial production.
Sadeeq Agro also sells organic fertiliser produced from cow dung or manure. Now, they are looking to manufacture compost and establish biogas plants. They already have ordered the compost machines.
Inspiration for the youth
Imran, who graduated with a BBA degree from the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB) in 2003, and his three brothers are the owners of Jalalabad Group — which their father Hazi Osman Ali established in Old Dhaka before the country’s independence.
Osman imported steel metal and sold them wholesale at the beginning. Later, the family went on to set up several sister concerns, including Jalalabad Steel Limited, Jalalabad Steel Building Limited and Jalalabad Metal Limited.
Talking to The Business Post, Imran said, “My family already had an established business. Essentially, I did not need to buy 45 cows with four friends and try our luck. But I wanted to do something new. I have suffered losses many times but I never gave up.”
“I diversified whenever we got stuck. I took many new initiatives. I want to show today’s youths that they can try to do the same and be successful too with determination and a hardworking mind,” he said.
In recent years, Sadeek Agro and Imran have won several national-level awards for their contribution to the economy and digital innovations.
Imran won the “Sheikh Hasina Youth Volunteer Award” in 2022. The company won the “Digital Haat Award 2020-21” from the ICT division. It was also recognised for home delivery of Qurbani meat during the lockdown.
Along with winning the Dairy Icon Award, they also secured the first prize in different cattle exhibitions multiple times over the years.
