Waste, but not useless

Many raised their eyebrows, some thought he was out of his mind when they came across Mohammad Elias' new business idea some 20 years ago.

His plan to make money exporting omasum, a part of the stomach of cattle that is just thrown away, sounded quite bizarre even to his family members.

But no word of discouragement could stop him from pursuing his goal. And today, he owns two companies in the port city that make a staggering profit every month, sending tonnes of processed omasum abroad.

Talking to The Daily Star at his office in Aturar Depot area, Elias, now 42, said his business flourished as items like buffalo omasum soup and omasum salad are quite popular in China for their unique taste.  

His firms export at least two containers of processed omasum to China via Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong every month, and each of the containers with around 27 tonnes of processed omasum valued at USD 0.15 million to USD 0.2 million.

Mohammad Elias overseeing the sorting of cow stomachs at his warehouse in Chittagong. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

Elias' journey was not smooth.

Born in an extremely poor family in Chittagong city's Shahid Nagar, he had to start collecting hides from different areas for a living. He had just taken his HSC exams in the mid 90s.

But one day, he saw something interesting and it instantly caught his attention. At a butcher shop, three to four men were collecting a part of a cow's stomach that is usually dumped. 

Curious, he followed them for a while and found out that a huge pile of that particular thing was being cleaned, and processed with salt inside a warehouse at Kalurghat area. They were about to be sent to China through the illegal channels.

“Suddenly, the idea of legally exporting omasum to China popped into my mind and I shared it with my family, relatives and friends. But almost everyone thought I had gone mad,” Elias recalled.

“It's just a dog food. How can even you think of exporting anything like this?” he quoted one of his uncles as saying. 

One of his friends then came forward to help him. He introduced Elias to a Chinese woman in Dhaka. The woman had adequate knowledge about processing omasum and she taught him the skills.

A few days later, he came back to Chittagong and started to collect and process the item, though in a limited scale, at his own warehouse.

”One day, I was approached by a Pakistani group that gave me $1,225 for a tonne of omasum,” Elias recalled.  ”There has been no looking back since them.”

In 2005-2006, he started his own company Kemriz Sea Foods International. Later, he launched another, Jimco Trade International.

Today, he has 18 business competitors. All such companies have formed their own association -- Bangladesh Omasum Exporters Association, Elias said.

Some 15 containers, each having 60,000 to 70,000 pieces omasum, are now exported to China via Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam every month, said Romakanta Mazumder, president of the body.

Omasum exporters said their business would further expand if the government incentive in the sector was increased to 30 percent. The incentive has been decreased to 5 percent from 15 percent recently, they added.