Informal cattle market fills a side street in Agargaon before Eid-ul-Azha

In the last days before Eid-ul-Azha, informal cattle and goat markets set up in Dhaka's side streets began to fill with buyers. On Wednesday, 4 June 2025, Jago News reported from one of them, on the road behind the GTCL building in Agargaon. According to a Prothom Alo report of 3 June, Eid-ul-Azha was due to be celebrated in Bangladesh on 7 June that year.

GTCL is the state-owned Gas Transmission Company Limited, which transmits natural gas across Bangladesh under the supervision of Petrobangla. Agargaon is an administrative neighbourhood of Dhaka.

Jago News reported that the market, organised under the banner of an agro farm, already had more than 300 cattle and goats. Babu Mia, one of its managers, said animals had been arriving for two days but formal trading began that day, and by his count 39 animals were sold on the first day.

A farmer named Muslim had brought nine cows from his own farm in Sirajganj. "I have only just arrived at the market. Buyers are asking prices, but I have not sold one yet," he told Jago News. In his view buyers were waiting to get an idea of prices first, and would start buying once trading picked up.

Mahbub Alam, a resident of West Agargaon, had come to buy a cow. "There is a big gap between what we expect and the farmers' prices," he told Jago News. He thought this was because buyers had no clear idea of prices yet, and said he would look around and check before buying.

The same day Prothom Alo reported that small and medium cows were selling best at Dhaka's Gabtoli cattle market, at prices between Tk 72,000 and Tk 2.1 lakh. Altaf Mia, a cattle trader from Sirajganj, told the paper he had brought 24 cows there and sold three on the first day.

Prothom Alo reported on 3 June that formal sales of sacrificial animals began that day in Dhaka's two city corporations, at 19 markets: 12 in Dhaka North and 7 in Dhaka South, with three more awaiting final approval. The Dhaka North administrator told the paper that several ministries had jointly taken decisions on market security, traffic, preventing illegal markets and the health of animals brought in. The Jago News report did not say whether the Agargaon market was on the approved list.

On national supply, Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter told a press conference on 4 May 2025 that 12,447,337 animals were available for sacrifice that year, including 5,602,905 cattle and buffaloes and 6,838,920 goats and sheep. By the ministry's estimate more than 2.068 million animals would be left over beyond demand, so no animals would be imported.

Photo: Wasiul Bahar / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Prothom Alo (4 May, 3 June and 4 June 2025), Wikipedia