The government has recently recognised the jackfruit of Sreepur in Gazipur as a geographical indication (GI) product. For its taste and aroma, this jackfruit is famous not only at home but also abroad. As soon as the season begins, jackfruit markets spring up across Sreepur, record quantities are sold every year, and the fruit goes beyond the domestic market to other countries. To brand Sreepur by its jackfruit, the district administration has built a huge jackfruit sculpture on the upazila administration premises, with the official slogan "Green and lush Sreepur, full of sweet jackfruit".

This area near Dhaka produces on average about 2.5 lakh tonnes of jackfruit a year. Three types are grown here, known as khaja, gala and durosa. Every year these varieties are exported to Europe and the Middle East through the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

The biggest jackfruit haat sits at Jainabazar in Sreepur upazila. Large and small haats are also held at Nagarhaola in Gazipur union, Chakpara in Mawna union, Tepirbari in Telihati union, Rajabari bazar in Rajabari union, Chhatir Bazar, and Kewa and Channapara in Sreepur municipality. Buyers and visitors come from far away, and wholesale buyers rush to these haats for tasty jackfruit at low prices, which traders then sell locally. Many wholesalers even come from Karwan Bazar, Jatrabari, Hemayetpur and Uttara in the capital, and truckloads go to districts across the country.

Because demand is high, orchard owners sell their trees to wholesalers while the fruit is still small (muchi). The seasonal jackfruit trade employs at least several thousand workers. With jackfruit so plentiful in the area, it sells very cheaply in season. Various Bangladeshi products have been recognised as GI products over time, but this time the national fruit itself has been recognised.

According to local people and traders, thousands of jackfruits are sold every day at Jainabazar beside the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway. Trading goes on almost round the clock and is busiest from dawn to dusk. Wholesalers come from far-flung parts of the country and take the fruit to the capital and elsewhere. Hundreds of people work bringing fruit from orchards to market, buying and selling, and loading and unloading vehicles. There are many jackfruit orchards around Jainabazar, and good communications and infrastructure for wholesalers' food and lodging have made it the biggest jackfruit market.

Big jackfruit markets are also held along the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Jainabazar, Seedstore, Mawna Chowrasta bazar, Bagher Bazar, Baniarchala and Bhabanipur bazar in Sreepur. This scene lasts from the start of Jyoishtha to the end of Asharh. Orchard owners in Sreepur are now busy, with women of the household also helping to collect and market the fruit. Every day at dawn, owners pick ripe jackfruit and bring it to market by van and handcart. It is now the peak season, and by late afternoon rows of trucks line the highway as jackfruit is loaded in front of the wholesale depots.

Gazipur's villages are now overflowing with jackfruit. Wherever you look there is jackfruit, in courtyards and on verandas alike, and it is selling briskly in haats and markets. Not only that, Gazipur jackfruit is going to 15 countries, including in the Middle East, and is being exported commercially.

Inquiries found that Kapasia and Sreepur in Gazipur, known as the country's jackfruit capital, have had a bumper crop again this year. Thanks to easy communications, traders from Dhaka and elsewhere go to remote areas to buy jackfruit from farmers' trees or orchards.

On exports, Kamal Hossain of Gorgoria Masterbari bazar said Sreepur jackfruit is exported to many countries and goes regularly to 15 countries, including in the Middle East. But he complained that no cold storage has been built in Sreepur to preserve jackfruit, and that lakhs of taka worth of fruit rots every season for lack of storage.

When the season starts, jackfruit lovers and traders from various countries, including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, come to the village. Through them, jackfruit leaves every day in trucks and pickups, going via the airport to different countries.

According to agricultural experts, all the unions of Kapasia and Sreepur have the soil and climate jackfruit needs. So farmers give it priority and create new orchards on high land every year. As the area is free of floods, jackfruit is easy to grow. Farmers in the upazila begin harvesting IRRI-Boro paddy every Baishakh, and the jackfruit selling season begins before the paddy harvest is over.

Local people say there is no separate market or space for selling seasonal fruit at the 32 haats and bazars in 11 unions of Kapasia upazila, causing farmers problems and harassment. The upazila's largest market sits at Kapasia Sadar bazar itself, yet there is no separate arrangement there. As a result, farmers cannot take their jackfruit to market and are deprived of the real price; middlemen pay below market value and farmers are forced to sell cheaply.

Jackfruit farmers say jackfruit is one of the upazila's main cash crops, yet there is no government initiative for its cultivation and no bank loan facility. If there were government training on increasing jackfruit production, yields would be higher, they said.

According to the Gazipur district DAE, in the 2023-24 fiscal year jackfruit was grown on 2,050 hectares in Gazipur Sadar upazila, 1,760 hectares in Kapasia, 3,552 hectares in Sreepur, 550 hectares in Kaliakair and 1,191 hectares in Kaliganj.

Md Rafiqul Islam Khan, deputy director of the DAE in Gazipur, said: "In the 2023-24 fiscal year, jackfruit was grown on a total of 9,103 hectares in Gazipur, producing 2,49,792 tonnes. Jackfruit farmers are given training and advice on marketing, maintaining quality and other matters."

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