Being a retail vegetable seller in Dhaka is quite an ordeal. You have to rush to Karwan Bazar, the biggest commodity marketplace in the capital, or the warehouses near the market to get vegetables either in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn.

But Fashol, an online wholesale market for agricultural products, is here to solve the problem. 

Every day, the company collects products from the farmers or other wholesalers from Bogura, Khulna, Narsingdi, Joypurhat, Mymensingh, Gazipur, and Faridpur and brings them to their storehouse in Karwan Bazar where they are eventually dispatched to the retailers by 6am. 

The customers do not have to pay a delivery charge for their orders.

Currently, the company collects about 20% of the products directly from the farmers and the rest is procured from regional wholesalers.

The company also has sales executives who build rapport with the retailers and turn them into regular customers. A retailer can also place an order from Fashol's website.

The company is active in all residential and non-residential areas in Dhaka except Uttara and has more than a thousand regular customers, including Chaldal, a popular online grocery shop.

Md Rubel, one of the regular customers of Fashol, said, "I used to purchase vegetables from Karwan Bazar before but transporting the vegetables here used to cost me about Tk800 – Tk1000. But now, I use Fashol and can save that money."

He said the quality of the products Fashol provides is satisfactory as well.

Sakib Hossain, CEO of the company, said the company was launched in 2018 but it actively started marketing from 2020. The company currently delivers around two and a half to three lakh kilograms of vegetables every month. The products are sold at their wholesale price.

Hossain said the company carefully curates the best quality vegetable by its manpower.

"We deliver the products in our transport that helps us stay an affordable option for the retail vegetable sellers," he added.

"Every day at the wholesale market of Karwan Bazar, at least 25% – 30% vegetables go to waste and I think we have been successful in minimising that," Hossain claimed.

Even though Fashol sells around 350 types of vegetables and fruits now, they plan to include fish, meat, and egg on their platform soon.