As the afternoon fades and daylight goes, a betel leaf market worth crores of taka comes to life. At ordinary markets buyers and sellers come in daylight, but at this betel leaf market they come after dusk.
The market is held five days a week, every day except Thursday and Monday, and betel leaf worth crores of taka is traded each day, playing an important part in keeping the rural economy moving. Around this evening market, vegetable and fish markets and other businesses have grown up, and the area is now very busy.
The market is at Nilkhola, next to Torki bus stand in Ward 1 of Gournadi municipality in Barishal, beside the Dhaka-Barishal highway.
A market that opens at dusk
As dusk falls, betel farmers from various areas bring leaves from their plantations by van to their chosen wholesale stores. Once the leaves arrive, sorting begins. Each of the roughly 50 or more wholesale stores at Nilkhola employs at least 10 to 15 workers, who support their families with the work. With farmers, buyers, wholesalers and workers coming and going, the market stays busy from evening until about 11pm.
Several wholesale buyers, including Shahjahan Talukdar, said they buy betel leaf from the Nilkhola stores in Torki five days a week. Each buyer purchases leaf worth at least Tk 10 lakh to Tk 12 lakh a day, which is supplied to Dhaka, Sylhet, Feni and other districts.
Several betel farmers said that before the wholesale stores were set up, they sold betel leaf at village markets, where much of it went unsold. Since the stores opened, the leaf no longer goes unsold, which is why they sell there. They said a bira of betel leaf of various sizes now sells for Tk 70 to Tk 150 at the stores, and the price is higher in winter.
The store owners said the stores let farmers sell their leaf with ease and buyers do business, and that they give farmers and buyers the best possible facilities.
Gournadi upazila agriculture officer Md Sekender Sheikh said betel leaf is grown on about 680 hectares in the upazila. "We are giving betel farmers all kinds of technology and advisory services. The yield is much better this year than in other years. I hope betel farmers will profit," he said.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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