Ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, Enamul Faraji of Madaripur has come to the Aftabnagar animal market in the capital to sell cattle. His family has long been in farming and cattle rearing, but he had never brought cattle to Dhaka before. With travel made easier by the Padma Bridge, he has come to Dhaka with cattle for the first time. But Enamul is not happy, as he has not got the price he hoped for and the cattle are not selling.

At the Aftabnagar market on Friday (8 July), Enamul Faraji and his nephew Miraj Faraji were seen standing with three cattle of foreign breed, all of them quite large. Uncle and nephew brought four cattle to Dhaka from Patiladi village in Dudkhali union of Madaripur. They sell cattle at the local market in Madaripur every year, and this is the first time they have brought any to Dhaka. They came hoping for a good price, but the cattle are not selling.

Enamul told Jagonews: "We have 42 cattle on our farm. We brought four to Dhaka. In the past three days only one has sold, while 14 have already sold at the village market."

He said: "I thought there were people with money in Dhaka and sales would be good. But they offer less and buy less. In the village people don't haggle much. But in Dhaka no one offers more than Tk 1.5 lakh for a Tk 2.5 lakh cow."

Enamul's nephew Miraj Faraji told Jagonews that they came to Dhaka with four cattle on the night of 5 July. On 7 July one sold for Tk 1 lakh 70 thousand. Of the remaining three, they first asked Tk 6 lakh 20 thousand for the biggest, Tk 5 lakh 20 thousand for the medium one and Tk 3 lakh 20 thousand for the smallest.

Having failed to sell in three days, they have now cut the prices to Tk 4 lakh 50 thousand for the big one, Tk 4 lakh 30 thousand for the medium one and Tk 2 lakh 80 thousand for the small one. "Still they are not selling," he said.

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