PHASE 01
Locked · Active
Pharmaceutical-grade native potato starch
100 MT/day potato input, ~5,500 MT/year output. The foundation phase and current investment focus.
Pirgachha, Rangpur — Bangladesh
From Rangpur's soil
to pharmaceutical-grade ingredients.
APRL is Bangladesh's first integrated Farm-to-Pharma industrial platform — refining locally grown potato into WHO-GMP grade starch, built to serve pharmaceutical manufacturers at home and abroad.
WHO-GMP aligned
Farm-to-Pharma
SiccaDania process line
Farmer's Field
Potato Intake — 8 TPH
Refining & Extraction
Pharma-Grade Output
APRL Promo
WHO-GMP
Pharma-grade starch
Having trouble? Watch on YouTube
Watch how APRL connects Rangpur's potato harvest to pharmaceutical-grade starch — from field to refinery.
100
MT potato processed / day
30,000
MT annual potato requirement
300
operating days / year
95–97%
starch extraction efficiency
SR
Founder's Vision
Building the platform I wished existed for Rangpur's farmers.
"APRL exists because Northern Bangladesh grows enough potato to feed a pharmaceutical industry — it simply never had the refinery to prove it. I founded APRL to build that refinery, keep its value inside Bangladesh, and put the farmer at the centre of the outcome."
MD Shohel Rana — Founder & Managing Director, Agro-Pharma Refinery Ltd.
Why APRL exists
An agro-industrial ecosystem, not a starch factory.
APRL was built to close the gap between Northern Bangladesh's potato surplus and the country's growing pharmaceutical excipient demand — with the farmer positioned at the centre of the value chain, not the edge of it.
- 01Fair prices for farmersDirect procurement from Rangpur-region growers, removing layers of intermediaries from the potato value chain.
- 02Reduced post-harvest lossA guaranteed, scheduled offtake channel that gives surplus potato an industrial destination instead of spoilage.
- 03Rural employmentDirect plant jobs and indirect employment across cultivation, logistics, and ancillary services in Pirgachha.
- 04A stronger pharma supply chainImport substitution of pharmaceutical-grade starch currently sourced from overseas suppliers.
- 05Northern Bangladesh as an agro-industrial hubAPRL as an anchor investment demonstrating what integrated agro-processing can look like at scale.
"We're not exporting raw potato. We're exporting the outcome of pharmaceutical-grade processing — and keeping that value inside Bangladesh."
MD SHOHEL RANA — FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR
From tuber to pharma-grade powder
The science behind every batch.
Native potato starch is separated from the tuber through a sequential wet-process — each stage engineered to protect starch purity for pharmaceutical use.
01
Washing
Removes soil and field debris from harvested tubers.
→02
Rasping
Tubers are pulped to rupture starch-bearing cells.
→03
Separation
Fibre, protein juice, and raw starch milk are separated.
→04
Refining
Hydrocyclone stages purify and concentrate the starch milk.
→05
Dewatering
Centrifugal dewatering raises the starch to ~82% dry solids.
→06
Flash drying
Controlled drying preserves purity for pharma-grade use.
Raw Starch Yield =
Potato Throughput × Native Starch Content × Extraction Efficiency
8,000 kg/hr × 16% × 95–97% → refined to 1,520 kg/hr at 82% dry solids
A verified operating formula, not an estimate
These figures are locked design parameters, validated against the technology partner's process specification — the same basis used in APRL's engineering and financial models.
Six-phase roadmap
One platform, an expanding product base.
Phase 1 is locked and fully specified. Each subsequent phase builds on the same intake infrastructure, extending APRL from a single ingredient into a diversified refinery.
1 / 6
Engineering basis
Built on a proven wet-process line.
Every parameter below is a locked design assumption, verified against the technology partner's process specification — not a projection.
Technology partner
SiccaDania B.V., Netherlands
A century of potato and starch processing engineering, supplying APRL's core wet-process extraction line for Phase 1.
Extraction efficiency
95–97%
Dry solids output
82%
Power draw
286 kW avg.
Fresh water use
5.5 m³/hr
| Potato input rate | 8 TPH |
| Daily processing capacity | 100 MT/day |
| Operating days per year | 300 days |
| Annual potato requirement | 30,000 MT/year |
| Potato starch content | 16% |
| Starch extraction efficiency | 95–97% |
| Dry starch output | 1,520 kg/hr |
| Output dry solids | 82% |
| Average power consumption | 286 kW |
| Fresh water consumption | 5.5 m³/hr |
Company Portfolio & Technical Data Sheet
Complete company overview, process flow, target specifications, and packaging details for pharmaceutical-grade native potato starch.
Download Portfolio ↓
Quality & regulatory
Designed to certified pharma standards from day one.
Facility design, documentation, and quality systems are built toward the following standards, not retrofitted after commissioning.
WHO
WHO-GMP
Good Manufacturing PracticecGMP
cGMP
Current GMP standardDGDA
DGDA
Bangladesh drug authorityISO
ISO 9001·14001·22000
Quality, environment, food safetyHACCP
HACCP
Hazard control systemFor Foreign Direct Investment partners
A first-mover platform, ready for international capital.
APRL offers FDI partners entry into Bangladesh's first integrated Farm-to-Pharma platform, at the ground floor of a six-phase expansion. Detailed financial modelling, including CAPEX and returns, is shared directly with qualified parties under NDA.
- 01First-mover advantageBangladesh's first integrated Farm-to-Pharma platform, with no direct domestic competitor at this scale.
- 02Government-aligned investment climatePositioned to benefit from Bangladesh's agro-processing and export incentive frameworks under BIDA and BEZA.
- 03De-risked engineeringTechnology and process parameters locked with SiccaDania B.V., Netherlands — not a conceptual design.
- 04Export & import-substitution demandAddresses both regional export markets and Bangladesh's current reliance on imported pharmaceutical-grade starch.
- 05Phased, scalable structureSix defined phases allow staged co-investment rather than a single all-at-once capital commitment.
- 06ESG and circular-economy alignmentFarmer impact, water/power efficiency, and by-product circularity built into the core design, not added later.
Request the Investment Memorandum
Full financial structuring — CAPEX, financing mix, and return projections — is available to qualified investors and government partners upon direct enquiry and NDA.
Request full financialsPublic materials intentionally exclude detailed CAPEX figures to protect commercially sensitive terms during active fundraising.
Circular by design
Nothing leaves the loop unused.
Later phases are built to return value to the same land and livestock that supply APRL — not to extract from the region and stop there.
01Potato harvested from partner farms across Rangpur enters the refinery at a guaranteed offtake price.
02Wet-process refining separates starch, water, and by-product streams under controlled conditions.
03By-product streams become Phase 5 animal feed and Phase 6 biofertiliser inputs.
04Biofertiliser returns to the same growing region, supporting soil health for the next season's crop.
Get in touch
Based in Rangpur. Open to the world.
Submit your enquiry below — our team responds to investors, government partners, pharmaceutical buyers, and farmer cooperatives.
Agro-Pharma Refinery Ltd.
FROM FARM TO PHARMA
We welcome enquiries from around the world. Share your details and we will route your message to the right team.
AddressPirgachha, Rangpur, Bangladesh
Phone+880 — Contact via email
ForInvestors · Government partners · Pharmaceutical buyers · Farmer cooperatives
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