Juicy lychees now abound across the hills. With a record lychee yield in orchards across Khagrachhari this year, markets are full of plump red lychees. Alongside local varieties, the district's markets are filled with the popular China-2 and China-3 varieties. With the high yield, buyers can get tasty lychees at relatively low prices, but orchard owners and growers are frustrated at not getting fair prices.

A tour of Dighinala, Matiranga and other markets in the district found good-quality China-2 lychees selling retail at just 50 paisa to Tk 1 each and China-3 lychees at Tk 1 to Tk 2. Local and small lychees cost Tk 10 to Tk 20 per hundred. Wholesale prices have fallen by almost half.

Lychee grower Md. Awlad Hossain said that with favourable weather this year the orchards bore plenty of fruit. But lychees cannot be kept on the tree for long once ripe, so huge quantities have reached the market in a short time and prices have fallen.

Bishakha Tripura, who brought lychees from the Satmile area of the district town, said: "Every tree in our orchard has borne lychees. I brought 2,000 China-2 lychees and sold them wholesale for just Tk 1,500."

Santosh Chakma, a grower from Bhairofa in Dighinala, said: "I have 85 lychee trees. I brought 1,000 China-3 lychees to market and sold them for only Tk 1,200. With prices so low, it is hard even to cover costs."

Ordinary buyers, however, are happy to get good lychees cheaply. Md. Abdur Rashid Khan, who came to buy at Khagrachhari market, said: "For the past two years good lychees were not available in the hills. This year the yield is good and prices are very affordable."

Another buyer, Shipon Das, said: "There are plenty of lychees in the market. But early rain is spoiling some lychees, and insect attacks are also appearing."

Local wholesalers said that although lychee production has risen in Khagrachhari, sending the fruit to other districts involves extra transport costs and various local charges. As a result, big traders from other districts are showing less interest than before.

Onkar Biswas, additional deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Khagrachhari, said: "This year lychees have been grown on about 2,000 hectares in the district. Along with local varieties, China-2 and China-3 have also yielded well. Most lychees in the district are grown in Sadar, Dighinala and Matiranga upazilas, and compared with the last few years, record lychee production has been achieved this time."

"If proper care and market management can be ensured, Khagrachhari's lychee will in future become established as one of the country's most promising cash fruits," he added.

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