Demand for green coconuts (dab) has risen across the country in the current heat, and demand for coconuts from Bhola is higher than for those from other districts. Bhola farmers' coconuts pass through many hands to reach the capital and the rest of the country, with the largest share going to wholesale houses in Dhaka.

But farmers complain that middlemen buy from them cheaply and sell at high prices in Dhaka, so although coconuts are expensive in the market, farmers are denied a fair price.

On a visit to Monpura, Bhola's isolated upazila, there were 60-70 local middlemen who go from house to house buying coconuts from farmers. From morning to afternoon they travel around Hajirhat, Monpura, Dakshin Sakuchia, Uttar Sakuchia and Kalatalir Char, agreeing prices and paying an advance. From 6am the next day they cut the coconuts from the trees until noon, carry them by auto-rickshaw and van to their godowns, and send them the same day by steamer and launch to wholesale houses in Dhaka.

Md Abbas Uddin, a farmer from Char Faizuddin village in Hajirhat union, said he once had 200 to 300 coconut trees, but many were lost to river erosion and he now has about a hundred. He sells coconuts from them every year, and from March to May this year sold 2,000 coconuts. The middlemen paid him Tk 50 to 60 each, and he got around Tk 1.3 lakh.

Md Ismail Hossain, a farmer from Koralia village in Dakshin Sakuchia union, said he earns good money from his coconuts every year. With the money he has planted more coconut seedlings, runs his household and bought a cow.

He said the traders first offer Tk 30, and after bargaining he gets no more than Tk 55. "I sell anyway, because there's no hassle of cutting the coconuts; they bring their own people and pick them. Even if we get less than the market price, there's nothing we can do."

Md Jamal Hossain, a farmer from Banglabazar village in the same union, said traders buy from them for at most Tk 60, yet the same coconut sells in the market for Tk 150 to 200.

Md Shahe Alam, a farmer from Tulatuli village in Monpura union, said Monpura's traders form a syndicate, buy cheaply and sell at high prices in Dhaka's wholesale market. If farmers could sell in Dhaka themselves they would profit much more, he said, but they do not have enough coconuts ready at once, and unless a large quantity is taken, the cost of going to Dhaka does not pay. So they sell to the traders.

Md Jahangir, a wholesale coconut trader in Monpura, said he has been buying coconuts in Monpura and selling them to wholesale houses in Dhaka for about 10 years. Every year from the Bengali month of Chaitra to Kartik he goes to villages in different unions of Monpura to buy. There are now more than 60 to 70 traders like him in the upazila; some buy daily, some weekly and some monthly.

Md Imon Hossain said they buy coconuts from tree owners at Tk 50 and have them picked, then take them by auto-rickshaw and van to the launch ghat and send them by launch and steamer to the wholesale houses next to Sadarghat in Dhaka. Labour, auto-rickshaw, van and launch or steamer fares add Tk 14 to 18 per coconut, so a coconut bought for Tk 50 costs about Tk 65 to 70. "We can sell it at the wholesale houses for Tk 80 to a maximum of Tk 100. But the retailers gain the most. They buy at no more than Tk 5 above that and sell for Tk 150 to 200," he said.

Md Khairul Islam Mallik, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bhola, said farmers in the district's seven upazilas are turning to coconut planting and the department is encouraging them. Last financial year it gave out 6,000 coconut seedlings under an incentive programme and will do so again this year.

He said the seven upazilas now have 1,580,800 coconut trees, which produced 110,656,000 coconuts last financial year, most of them in Monpura and Char Fasson upazilas.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.