Apples sell for Tk 200 a kg or more in the market, yet at a Chattogram Customs auction they fetched about Tk 20 a kg. The reserve price for the apples had been set at Tk 166 a kg.

On Thursday Customs put 25 tonnes 499 kg of apples up for auction. The highest bidder, a firm called Masum Enterprise, offered Tk 5.05 lakh, which works out at Tk 19.80 a kg.

In the same auction, 12 tonnes of a textile chemical called Premium Enzyme Solution, valued at Tk 112 a kg, drew a highest bid of Tk 3.20 lakh from a firm called Haji Ferdous Alam, or Tk 26.67 a kg. Chattogram Customs had set the reserve price for these chemicals at Tk 14,65,625.

Md Abdul Hannan, the deputy commissioner in charge of the auction branch of Chattogram Customs, said containers of many auctionable goods had piled up in the port yard. "To clear the yard, we have taken the initiative to auction perishable goods quickly. This work will continue," he said.

There are allegations, however, that hundreds of containers of perishable goods are lying at Chattogram port because they were not released on time. Because the goods are not auctioned at the right time, Customs is not getting a proper price, and the goods are rotting in the containers purely through Customs' negligence.

Most recently, on 9 October, Customs auctioned about 28 tonnes of frozen buffalo meat. The meat was worth Tk 2.5 crore, but the bids reached only Tk 4 lakh.

It is also alleged that several syndicates operate in the Customs auction branch and take part in auctions together, so Customs does not get the proper price for auctioned goods.

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