The price of raw papaya in Dhaka's markets has collapsed. For a week it has sold wholesale at just Tk 4 to 10 a kilogram. Low-income shoppers are relieved, but the glut has left farmers, wholesalers and traders in trouble, The Daily Star reports.
Karwan Bazar gets its papaya mainly from Chuadanga, Jessore, Manikganj, Faridpur and Rajshahi. Last year raw papaya reached Tk 80 to 100 a kilogram at retail, so this year traders advanced large sums to farmers, and yields were good. Sher Ali Pathan, a papaya wholesaler for 47 years, advanced Tk 3 crore across five districts. He has been selling at Tk 6 to 7 a kilogram, and on Monday the price fell to Tk 4, though transport from Chuadanga and Jessore alone costs more than Tk 4 a kilogram. He doubts he will recover even Tk 50 lakh of the Tk 3 crore.
Rafiqul Islam, who brought three tonnes from Singair in Manikganj, said land rent, seed, fertiliser and cultivation cost Tk 10 to 12 a kilogram in the field, and transport and labour another Tk 3, so papaya costs Tk 13 to 15 a kilogram by the time it reaches Karwan Bazar. He sold it at Tk 6 to 8, a loss of more than half.
With other vegetables at Tk 50 to 100 a kilogram and beans, tomatoes and carrots at Tk 150 to 220, papaya is within everyone's reach. Amir Hossain, who runs a small eatery in Shewrapara, said higher LPG prices have pushed him to sell a Tk 20 papaya-and-potato fry; he used to buy 5 kilograms of papaya a day and now buys 20. Rahima Begum, who cooks for a 30-person mess in West Rajabazar, has also put more papaya on the daily menu.
Md Hazrat Ali, director of the horticulture wing of the Department of Agricultural Extension, said both the area and the output of papaya have grown this year, with high-yielding hybrid varieties spreading in many districts; more land and good yields raised supply and pushed prices down. Mosharraf Hossain, who has sold vegetables at Karwan Bazar for 45 years, said he has never seen papaya this cheap.
Reporting: Shaheen Mollah, The Daily Star
Photo: NagaBazarRajshahi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: The Daily Star
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