With Eid-ul-Azha approaching, selling has begun at the sacrificial animal markets in the capital, Dhaka, but the markets and the trade have not yet picked up as hoped.

On Friday 22 May, a holiday, some interested buyers crowded into the markets in the afternoon, but little buying and selling was seen. From the start, sellers were somewhat unhappy with prices, and most visitors left after looking around. That was the picture at the Dhaka South City Corporation's temporary animal market at North Shahjahanpur.

As every year, animals have arrived here by truck from Jamalpur, Kushtia, Chuadanga, Jashore, Meherpur, Sirajganj and other parts of the country. The company that has leased the market estimates that four to five thousand cattle have arrived so far. Around ten thousand animals are brought here for sale each year.

Sellers say that although supply is plentiful, trade has not picked up to match. Buyers are mainly watching the market and checking prices. Thousands of cattle are tied in rows under awnings across almost the whole of the Shahjahanpur main ground and the open spaces of the neighbouring railway colony. Cattle will keep arriving until the day before Eid, and sales will keep pace.

Sellers say that, as in recent years, small and medium cattle are in greatest demand this time too, though a number of huge cattle are the market's main attraction.

Bazlur Rahman brought 12 cattle from Jamalpur on Wednesday and has managed to sell one. He told Jago News: "With prices of everything so high, people have no money in hand. So I think big cattle won't sell, which is why I brought small and medium ones. One sold yesterday for Tk 1 lakh 35 thousand." He added that real selling would begin from 25 May, because most people in Dhaka have nowhere to keep a cow and so everyone wants to buy at the last moment.

Enamul Haque, who brought cattle from Kushtia, has been coming to this market for seven years. He told Jago News that arrivals were already fairly good and there was still time for more cattle to come, but buyers were few in comparison.

A tour of the market showed that small and medium cattle dominate. Sellers are asking more than Tk 1.5 lakh for a cow that will yield four to four and a half maunds of meat. Minu Mia, a seller, said: "I still can't read the market. I'm asking one price; let's see what buyers say."

Sellers say they bought cattle from farmers in remote areas for Tk 10,000–15,000 more than last year.

Abdul Bari came from Basabo. The buyer told Jago News: "I came to see what the market is like, and I would buy if the price was right. But the market seems very expensive. A cow they want Tk 1 lakh 70 thousand for looks to me worth Tk 1 lakh 40 thousand." In other words, he feels sellers are asking Tk 20,000 to 40,000 too much for each animal.

Nizam Uddin, a representative of the leaseholder, told Jago News that the market had been collecting fees on cattle sales for three days and close to 50 animals had been sold so far. He said the main selling would begin after Sunday, though the supply of animals this year was higher than last year.

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