Badamtoli, on the Buriganga between Sadarghat and Babubazar, is Dhaka's largest and oldest wholesale fruit market. What Hasan Ali Dhali and a few colleagues began in 1935 with a handful of local fruits now stretches from Badamtoli to Wiseghat, Shahzada Mia Lane and the Buriganga Bhaban market. Retailers from Dhaka and beyond crowd its roughly 250 wholesale houses every day.
Its best-known sight is the auction straight off the truck. Trucks that leave the districts at night are surrounded by traders as soon as they reach the ghat. After the wholesalers have bought, the rest is called out from the truck beds; auctions run on more than 30 trucks at once, from dawn until about 11 am. When a price is agreed, the carton is thrown down to the buyer and paid for on the spot.
Abdur Rahman, a van retailer from Jurain, said he had bought apples for Tk 3,900 and malta for Tk 2,000. The main mango season is over, but year-round Katimon and Ashwina mangoes are in. Rasel Lakuria of Munshiganj, a trader here for about 25 years, said bagged mangoes suffer less from pests and stay unmarked; sellers call them tissue mangoes, and unbagged, spotted ones niyom mangoes.
According to the report's prices, good bagged, tree-ripened Katimon sells at Tk 150 to 180 a kg and Ashwina at Tk 180 to 220. Mangoes are sold by the crate: for a 28 kg crate, 2 kg is deducted for the crate and paper and 26 kg is charged. Locally grown dragon fruit is Tk 100 to 120 a kg, and green BARI Malta-1 is Tk 100 a kg.
Beyond local fruit, imports dominate. Apples, malta, oranges and grapes from South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand, Finland, Poland and China sell all year. An 18-19 kg carton of Fuji, South African or Gala apples costs Tk 4,800 to 6,300.
From mid-May to mid-September Badamtoli fills with mangoes, lychees, burmese grapes, jackfruit and pineapples. The ghat is a key link between fruit growers and city retailers, and growing methods such as bagging show up directly in the price. The report is by M A Hannan.
Photo: Badamtoli ghat on the Buriganga, David Stanley / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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