For three days in a row, Dhaka University student Sadman Sakibuzzaman has been scouring the cattle markets at Diabari in Uttara, Keraniganj and Hazaribagh. Last year he bought a cow he liked for Tk 1.8 lakh, including the market fee. This year, even with a budget Tk 20,000 higher, he cannot find a cow like last year's.

For the same size of cow he bought last year for Tk 1.8 lakh, traders are asking Tk 3 lakh this year. When he starts bargaining at Tk 1.5 lakh, the traders smile and say, "Why don't you look around the market?" Even when he eventually offered Tk 2 lakh, the trader would not let the cow go, and instead consoled him: "Why buy from me? If you get it at this price from someone else, take it."

Speaking to this reporter by phone on the evening of 25 May, Sadman said, "I have just got home after walking round the Diabari and Hazaribagh markets in the rain all day. There are plenty of cattle, but the traders are not giving any discount. They are asking too much. When we name a price, they smile. I can't tell whether prices will stay this high to the end."

Although the capital's markets are well supplied, trade has not yet picked up. Buyers are coming but, unable to agree on prices, are still looking around. Sellers, too, are testing buyers' mood through bargaining. Meanwhile some cattle are selling for between Tk 1.5 lakh and Tk 2 lakh.

Gazi Salahuddin, a student at the private BRAC University, went to the Shahjahanpur cattle market on 25 May evening with his father and two brothers. He told Jagonews24 that prices seemed higher than last time. He said traders had lowered their asking prices somewhat after dusk, but they might still have to pay Tk 20,000 to 30,000 more than last year's budget.

Nurul Alam Liton of Ashkona in Dhaka sacrifices a pair of cattle every year. Last time he bought two for Tk 4 lakh, but for cattle of the same size traders are asking more than Tk 5 lakh this year, he said.

In Dhaka families that sacrifice every year, children wait for their guardians to come back from the market, calling several times while they are there to ask whether they have managed to buy a cow.

Nusaiba Zaman, a Viqarunnisa Noon School student living in Azimpur, told this reporter on 25 May evening that it was not just her family: her friends' fathers and brothers were also going to the markets and failing to buy. There are many cattle but prices do not match. Friends were calling one another to say, "Friend, there are lots of cows at the market, but the prices don't work. The traders won't come down."

Buyers expect that on Tuesday and Wednesday, the last two days before Eid, sales of sacrificial animals will rise and prices may fall somewhat.

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