Pirojpur's floating guava market trades over Tk 20 crore a season, DAE says

The traditional floating guava market at Atghar Kuriana in Nesarabad upazila of Pirojpur district was in full swing in late July 2026, Jagonews24 reported on 29 July. Every morning of the season, growers from the villages around the canals brought their guavas to the market in small wooden dinghies and sold them from the boats to wholesale traders on the bank. Soumitra Sarkar, deputy director (Khamarbari) of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Pirojpur, told the paper that guava was grown on 710 hectares in the district, producing 7,210 tonnes, and that more than Tk 20 crore worth of guava was bought and sold at this floating market each season.

The market, which local people and visitors call the "Venice" of Bengal because so much of its life is on water, was described in the report as the heart of the local economy and, at the same time, an attraction known to tourists from home and abroad. Growers and traders told the paper that the harvest was somewhat smaller that year because of bad weather, but that prices were good, and they repeated a long-standing demand for a cold store and a guava jelly factory in the area.

As the sun came up, farmers from Atghar Kuriana, Adamkathi, Jindakathi and several other villages of the upazila rowed along the canals with boats full of guava and brought them to the traders' depots, the report said. One after another the boats pulled up to the bank, the growers haggled with the wholesalers, and once a price was agreed the guavas were lifted up in plastic trays. After selling, the farmers rowed home again; some first stopped to buy goods for their families with the money they had just earned.

Local growers and traders said hundreds of maunds of guava left the market every day for markets across the country, including Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna and Barishal. A maund of guava was selling for Tk 600 to Tk 800. Wholesalers loaded the fruit onto trucks for Dhaka, Chattogram, Cumilla and other cities, and some of it went by water to nearby districts and upazilas, among them Jhalakathi, Barishal, Banaripara and Patuakhali. Because the guavas from this area are large and sweet, the report said, there is strong demand for them in the big cities.

Nazrul Islam, a trader, had come before sunrise from Kachua in the neighbouring district of Bagerhat. "I have come from Kachua thana in Bagerhat to buy guava here and sell it in the market. This guava does not grow anywhere else in Bangladesh. I will buy guava here and take it to Bagerhat to sell," he told Jagonews24.

Mostafa Howlader, a local guava trader, said: "Guava from here goes to different parts of the country, to Chattogram, Dhaka, Cumilla and many other places. There is a bit less guava this year because of bad weather, but the price is good. A maund of guava is selling for Tk 600 to 800. People across the country like our guava because it is very sweet."

The scene is a daily one in the season. Prothom Alo reported in September 2024 that during the guava season floating markets sat every day on the Atghar Kuriana, Jindakathi, Adamkathi and Dholhar canals of Nesarabad, and that traders came from different parts of the country to buy. The same report said the canal banks of the Atghar Kuriana villages are lined with orchards of guava and of amra (hog plum), and that both fruits are traded on the water.

Nesarabad, still widely known by its old name Swarupkathi, is one of the seven upazilas of Pirojpur district in Barishal division. Banglapedia, the national encyclopedia of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, gives its area as 200.33 square kilometres and its population as 211,032 at the 2011 census. Nesarabad thana was formed in 1906 and became an upazila in 1983, and Swarupkathi upazila was renamed Nesarabad in 1985. Its main rivers are the Swarupkati, Kaliganga, Bainakati and Belua, and the Gabkhana canal is the best known of its many canals. Banglapedia lists guava among the upazila's main fruits and among its main exports, with coconut-fibre products, banana, coconut, betel leaf, betel nut and hog plum.

Pirojpur district covers 1,277.80 square kilometres and had 1,113,257 people at the 2011 census, according to Banglapedia. It was formed as a district in 1984 and is bounded by Gopalganj and Barishal to the north, Barguna to the south, Jhalakathi to the east and Bagerhat to the west. Its main rivers are the Baleshwari, Swarupkati, Katcha and Kaliganga. Agriculture was the main source of income for 50.82 percent of its households in the census data the encyclopedia quotes.

The Atghar Kuriana canal, on which the market sits, is a branch of the Sandhya river, The Daily Star's Bangla edition reported in September 2022, and Atghar bazar lies about 5 kilometres east of the Nesarabad upazila headquarters. In the monsoon the floating market spreads over several kilometres of the canal. Prothom Alo described the villages of Atghar Kuriana union as famous for their guava orchards and noted that Bhimruli, in neighbouring Jhalakathi district about three kilometres away, has the largest floating guava market of the area.

The orchards also carry a painful memory. Banglapedia records that during the 1971 War of Liberation the Pakistan army, with local collaborators, carried out its most brutal killing in the upazila at the guava garden (Peara Bagan) of Atghar Kuriana, and that after the war about 300 human skulls were collected from a ditch behind the Kuriana College compound.

The DAE's deputy director in Pirojpur gave the paper the district figures on which the headline rests. "Nesarabad grows the most guava in Pirojpur district. Guava is grown on 710 hectares in the district, producing 7,210 tonnes, and more than Tk 20 crore of guava is bought and sold at this floating market each season," he said. He added that the agriculture office was advising growers on all aspects of raising guava output.

Earlier reports give a finer picture of the orchard belt around the market. Citing the local agriculture department, Prothom Alo reported in September 2024 that there were 2,025 guava orchards on 657 hectares in 22 villages of Atghar Kuriana union and the neighbouring Jalabari and Samudaykathi unions, that guava had been grown commercially in these villages for at least 200 years, and that the average yield that year was 10 tonnes per hectare.

For the wider region, The Daily Star reported on 1 August 2025 that, according to the DAE, guava was grown on 2,718 hectares in Barishal division, yielding 25,000 tonnes valued at around Tk 50 crore. Nesarabad's upazila agriculture officer told that paper that about 10,000 farmers in the upazila were involved in growing guava, hog plum and lemon. The same report named Jhalakathi Sadar as the region's second-largest guava producer and listed the main floating wholesale points of the belt: Bhimruli, Kirtipasha, Shatdashkathi, Khajuria, Dumuria, Kadakati, Jagadishpur, Kuriana and Rayerhat.

Seen against what the crop can give, Banglapedia notes that guava trees in full bearing may yield 400 to 800 fruits each, or 20 to 30 tonnes per hectare, depending on variety, age and growing conditions. In 2026 the growers at Atghar Kuriana said the crop was below an ordinary year's because of the weather, though the price made up for some of the shortfall.

Guava (Psidium guajava) belongs to a genus of about 150 species and is native to tropical America, from where it spread across the tropics and subtropics, Banglapedia says. Bangladesh is among the producing countries, along with India, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan and others. The tree grows best at 23 to 28 degrees Celsius, although mature trees can bear up to 45 degrees; it likes well-drained clay loam to sandy loam rich in organic matter, and about 100 centimetres of rain a year spread through the seasons.

The fruit grown around Atghar Kuriana is a recognised local type. Banglapedia describes the Swarupkathi variety as a medium-sized tree with oval to round fruit and a slightly rough skin, its white flesh very sweet and soft, with few seeds. It contrasts it with the Kazi piyara, a large oblong variety brought from Thailand around the 1980s whose fruit averages 500 grams, and with the Kanchannagar type of Chattogram. Other varieties grown in the country include the Bangladesh Agricultural University's FTIP BAU Piyara series and BARI Piyara 2 and 3 from the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute.

A guava tree stands 2 to 10 metres tall on shallow roots. Its flowers appear in the leaf axils, singly or in small clusters, flowering lasts 25 to 45 days in the season, and fruit is ready four to five months after flowering. Trees come into full bearing three to four years after planting. Because seedlings do not keep the mother tree's character and are slow to fruit, guava is usually multiplied by air layering, grafting or budding. Unripe fruit is green and turns yellow as it ripens, and it is eaten both green and ripe.

Guava is a rich source of vitamin C and of pectin. Banglapedia, citing a 2008 study, gives about 260 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams of edible portion, while noting that nutrient content varies with variety, season and ripeness. The same pectin is what makes guava suited to jam and jelly; juice, pickles and ice cream are also made from the fruit.

The season is short. Prothom Alo put it from mid-July to mid-September, and The Daily Star wrote in 2019 that the best time to visit the markets was July to October, when the canals are full. Local accounts of how guava came to the area differ: Prothom Alo reported a local belief that someone brought a sweet guava from Gaya in the Indian state of Bihar, which is why many locals call the fruit "goiya", while The Daily Star in 2025 quoted local people as saying a farmer brought the plant from Gaya more than two centuries ago.

For the growers, the day starts before dawn. "I grow guava on ten bighas. Every year I sell guava for good money, but this year there is a bit less. After the Fajr call to prayer I go to the orchard and start picking. Picking takes a long time. When it is done, I bring the guavas by boat to sell," guava grower Anupam Halder told Jagonews24.

A few years earlier, the report said, guava growers here did not get fair prices; after the Padma Bridge opened, the fruit began to go to Dhaka and several other large cities, and demand for Nesarabad's guava rose. The bridge was inaugurated on 25 June 2022. At 6.15 kilometres it carries a four-lane road on its upper deck and a railway below, linking Louhajang in Munshiganj with Zajira in Shariatpur and joining the less developed south-west to the rest of the country by road and rail.

Prothom Alo reported in 2024 that the number of visitors to the guava orchards had risen since the bridge opened. It described the routes: from Dhaka by road or water to Barishal and Jhalakathi; from Barishal about 30 kilometres by road to Atghar Kuriana, with small diesel vehicles known as "magic" leaving from Battala in Barishal city; and by trawler or boat along the canals between Atghar Kuriana and Bhimruli.

Earlier reports show how prices have swung with the season. In 2019 a local guava farmer told The Daily Star that the fruit had once sold for half a taka a kilogram at the peak of the season, while tourists now paid at least Tk 8 to 15 a kilogram. In August 2025 the paper reported prices of Tk 25 to 30 a kilogram early in the season, falling as low as Tk 2 or 3 a kilogram at the peak; a farmer told it that traders from Dhaka and Chattogram were then offering Tk 800 a maund but that the price would soon drop. Growers have long linked those collapses to the lack of any way of keeping the fruit.

Every guava season, the report said, an economy worth crores of taka ran on small dinghies, and the market had become more than a place of trade. During the season, visitors from home and abroad came to see it and the whole area took on a festive air. Parks and entertainment spots had grown up around the market, and tourists hired boats and trawlers to tour the orchards. This had brought money into the area and created work for unemployed local young people.

Hotels and restaurants had also opened around the market. At Bhimruli, the report said, the most popular was an eatery called Bhabir Hotel, where travellers from around the country ate mustard hilsa, hilsa bharta, prawn bhuna and duck curry, among other dishes.

Visitors also raised problems. They told the paper that more attention was needed to tourists' safety, to good guest houses and restaurants and to other shortcomings, and that closer oversight by the upazila administration could improve the spot. Shahriar Kinjal, a fourth-year economics student at Pirojpur Government Suhrawardy College, said: "I come to see the floating guava market every season. I love seeing it. What can I say, it lifts your heart just to look at it. When they bring the guavas through the canals in small boats, it is wonderful. You cannot see beauty like this anywhere else. But if the local administration looked into adequate security, guest houses, restaurants and other things with tourists in mind, there would be many more tourists."

The tourist trade had been growing for years before 2026. The Daily Star reported in August 2019 that the 200-year-old markets of Bhimruli and Atghar Kuriana were connected by a network of canals through orchards spread across 30 villages, that the floating markets closed around noon, and that on Fridays several hundred boats of visitors filled the canals. Prothom Alo wrote in 2024 that several "guava parks" and picnic spots had been set up privately along the waterway between Atghar and Bhimruli, that ambassadors of India, Thailand, Indonesia and the United States had visited the orchards at different times, and that local people asked visitors not to throw plastic and crisp packets into the canals. The district's deputy commissioner told that paper that work had begun on a four-storey guest house at Atghar, that two washrooms had been built for tourists and that the small canals inside the orchards were to be dug out.

In 2025 the secretary of a local tour operators' association told The Daily Star that around 5,000 visitors came every day in the season; the paper counted about 8 to 10 floating hotels, more than 100 trawlers and 20 to 25 tourist boats at Bhimruli, with boats hired for about Tk 300 an hour and trawlers for Tk 500. A tour operator quoted in the same report complained that loud music was disturbing the quiet of the canals.

None of this trade would move without boats, and Atghar has its own market for them. The Daily Star's Bangla edition reported in September 2022 that a dinghy market, said by local people to be a century old, sits on the Atghar Kuriana canal every Friday from morning to midday, and is known as the largest boat market in the south. In Barishal, Pirojpur and Jhalakathi, the paper noted, boats remain a common way to travel and to carry goods; guava and hog plum orchards stand along the canals and the fruit has to be picked and carried by boat, fishers need boats, and almost every family keeps one of its own.

Several hundred families in nearby villages such as Chami, Dubi and Ekta build the boats. At the 2022 market a boat sold for Tk 2,200 to Tk 10,000 depending on size and an oar for Tk 150 to Tk 400; one builder said 50 to 60 boats were usually sold on a market day, and more than a hundred in the guava season. Traders from three districts came to buy, and tourists visiting the floating guava markets of Atghar Kuriana and Bhimruli often stopped to see the boat market too.

Local farmers and traders told Jagonews24 that a guava jelly factory and a cold store would make the market stronger, keeping the fruit's quality and helping growers get fair prices. "If the government built us a cold storage and a jelly factory, we would get better prices," grower Anupam Halder said. The DAE deputy director agreed on storage: "If a mini cold storage were built here for farmers, guava could be stored and farmers would get a fair market price," he said.

The demand was not new. In 2025 growers in the Bhimruli and Nesarabad belt told The Daily Star that they wanted cold storage and processing plants to cut waste and steady prices, and the paper reported that, because guava ripens quickly and cannot be stored, many farmers were turning to hog plum and lemon and turning old guava orchards into mixed groves. An additional director of the DAE told the paper that the department was encouraging growers to take up a BARI variety, though farmers preferred the local guava, and that jam and jelly processing projects were being planned.

The fruit lends itself to such processing: Banglapedia lists jam, jelly, juice, pickles and ice cream among the products made from guava, and notes that its high pectin content is what makes it set. One variety, FTIP BAU Piyara 6, was collected from Hawaii specifically for jam and jelly because of its high pectin.

Nesarabad's upazila nirbahi officer, Amit Dutta, told Jagonews24 that the administration had issued a notice about the floating guava market setting out what tourists, local people and everyone else should do. "We have made a plan for tourism across the upazila and how to make this tourist spot more attractive. There is a tourism management committee, and we are considering how it can ensure accommodation, food and overall security for tourists. We are also planning how to attract foreign tourists," he said.

Photo: Muktar Hossain / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24 (29 July 2026), Department of Agricultural Extension (Pirojpur), Banglapedia (Asiatic Society of Bangladesh), Prothom Alo (2 September 2024), The Daily Star (28 August 2019 and 1 August 2025), The Daily Star Bangla (11 September 2022)