Satkhira's sweet Himsagar mangoes have started arriving in the market. Under a new schedule, picking and marketing began on Thursday (15 May), and the market is already full of Himsagar.
At Sultanpur Bara Bazar in Satkhira town, a maund of Himsagar was selling for Tk 1,800-2,200, which works out at Tk 45-55 a kg.
Schedule brought forward
The picking schedule was changed in the face of farmers' demands. The decision was taken on Wednesday night (14 May) in the conference room of the Satkhira deputy commissioner, at a meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner Mostak Ahmed.
Farmers had said that although mangoes were ripening before 20 May, they could not take them to market under the administrative calendar. Mature Himsagar mangoes were falling and rotting, and farmers were being denied fair prices because they could not market them in time.
After a long discussion, the meeting decided to bring the schedule forward in the national interest, as the heat had made the mangoes mature unusually fast.
The deputy commissioner said the decision was taken considering farmers' interests, market conditions and the reality of the weather. The administration will keep strict watch, he said, so that no one brings chemically treated unripe mangoes to market before the set dates.
Akhtar Hossain, a mango grower in Satkhira Sadar upazila, said that if the administration had given permission three or four days earlier, farmers could have made much more profit. "Now prices have fallen and we are facing losses," he said.
The agriculture department said about 62,000 tonnes of mangoes have been produced on about 4,135 hectares in the district's seven upazilas this year, mostly Himsagar, Amrapali and Langra.
Present at the meeting were DAE deputy director Saiful Islam, Sadar upazila nirbahi officer Shoaib Ahmed, Sadar upazila agriculture officer Monir Hossain, Kancha Bazar Traders' Association president Roushan Ali and general secretary Rajab Ali, along with representatives of mango growers from different upazilas.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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