The floating market for guava, Jhalakathi district's branded product, is in full swing.

Every day guava growers and wholesale buyers crowd the floating market at Bhimruli to trade and sell guavas.

It is now mid-Srabon, the peak of the guava season. Guava has been grown for a hundred years across 1,000 hectares in 12 villages of Jhalakathi as the region's main cash crop.

Every day, very early in the morning, growers bring three to ten maunds of guava each from their orchards to the market in small dinghies and sell them sitting in their boats.

Traders from the local area and elsewhere, especially from Chattogram, Dhaka, Khulna and Noakhali, buy the guavas straight from the boats and take them to their destinations by trawler or truck.

By noon the crowded floating market is empty. The Mukundapuri, Lata and Purnamandal varieties of guava are grown in the area; they are sweet and highly nutritious.

This year the rain meant the guavas took 15 days longer to reach the market.

For generations, guava has been grown in the region by cutting the soil into raised beds (kandi) in what the report calls the swajan method.

This year guavas are selling at Tk 300–400 a maund (40 kg), and growers are satisfied with the good price. Unlike other years, there is no "sit pora" spotting disease on the fruit this time, so market prices are good.

Source: Dhaka Tribune. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.