A short walk past Chawkbazar in Old Dhaka lies Moulvibazar, the largest and busiest wholesale spice market in Bangladesh. The smell of cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon and cumin reaches you before you enter its lanes. Prothom Alo's M A Hannan visited on 1 November.
Historian Muntassir Mamoon writes in his book on Dhaka that early in the nineteenth century a landlord, Moulvi Abdul Ali, set up a market at Mukim Katra on Paniati Lane, and the area took his name. Haji Md Abul Kashem, owner of MS Enterprise and a spice trader for 40 years, says trade boomed around the Buriganga river, and later imported spices arriving through Chattogram, Mongla and Benapole began to collect here.
Cumin and raisins from India and Pakistan, large cardamom from Guatemala, cloves from Indonesia and Madagascar and cinnamon from Sri Lanka sit beside mustard seed from Pabna, Bogura and Faridpur. Fenugreek, nutmeg, mace and dried plums are on sale too. Trade runs all year but peaks around Shab-e-Barat, Ramadan and the two Eids.
Recent wholesale prices per kilogram, given by MS Enterprise manager Himel Mahmud, who notes they change daily: cumin 460-550 taka, cinnamon 540-600, cloves 1,550-1,700, cardamom 3,300-3,800, black pepper 1,020, white pepper 1,220, mace 3,200-4,100, nutmeg 650-1,000, coriander 200-260, black cumin (kalojira) 490-550, bay leaf 150-200, and white and black mustard 120 taka.
Among nuts and seeds, cashews fetch 1,350-1,580 taka a kilogram, walnuts 1,000-1,200, peanuts 160-240, chia seed 340-480, sesame 270-340 and linseed 150-220. Khurma dates sell for 320 taka, Sukkari for 900 and Ajwa for 1,000. Herbal items include arjun bark at 160 taka, liquorice root at 400 and triphala at 1,800.
"Spice isn't just a product, it is the soul of cooking," says Abul Kashem. Because home-grown crops such as mustard, coriander and black cumin are traded in the same lanes as imported spices, the market's prices are a reference for everyone from home cooks to the farmers who grow spice crops.
Photo: Sarah.1001022 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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