The large litchi market at Kanumollar Battala in Beragangarampur, Gurudaspur upazila of Natore, one of the biggest in North Bengal, has come alive with its formal opening. The wholesale depots have started taking in fresh, juicy litchis.
Gurudaspur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Shraboni Roy formally opened the market at around 12 noon on 10 May.
Early Mozaffar crop
According to the sources concerned, early litchis of the Mozaffar variety have been grown on about 410 hectares in the area, with a production target of 3 lakh 690 metric tonnes. Picking of this litchi starts in the last week of Boishakh, and depot owners and traders are ready to send fruit to the market quickly once it is picked. The UNO assured traders coming from far away that their lodging, food and other problems at the market, which was set up in 2000, would be looked after.
Speaking at the opening, Sakhawat Hossain, president of the litchi depot owners' association, said more than a hundred depots in the market trade litchis wholesale all day. Around 7,000 workers are engaged every day in growing and trading the fruit. He added that the yield would have been higher if temperatures had stayed between 30 and 32 degrees.
Prices and sales
Rezaul Karim and Abdul Mannan, secretaries of the depot owners' association, said litchis were selling at Tk 1,800 to Tk 2,200 per thousand. At least Tk 100 crore worth of litchis will be traded from this market this year, they said.
Litchi growers including Rabiul Karim, Abdullah, Yusuf Ali and Mobarak Ali said they were happy to be getting a fair price. Every day 30 to 40 truckloads of litchis leave the market (each truck carries 200 baskets, with 2,200 litchis in a basket), bought at wholesale prices by traders from Dhaka, Sylhet, Chattogram, Jashore and other districts. Gurudaspur has had a bumper litchi crop this year.
Upazila agriculture officer Harunur Rashid said that of the 410 hectares under litchi in the upazila, 395 hectares are Mozaffar and 15 hectares are Bombai and China-3 varieties. The target is to produce 3 lakh 690 metric tonnes of litchis in 570 orchards, with a sale value of about Tk 50 crore, he said.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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