With Eid-ul-Azha approaching, Dhaka's animal markets are slowly filling up as sacrificial animals arrive from across the country. A market has been set up on the Donia College ground in the Shonir Akhra area of Jatrabari, and more than 5,000 cattle have already arrived there.

Traders and those involved in the market lease said sales had not yet begun at the rate cattle were arriving. Sales are very low. Many visitors look at the cattle, try to gauge prices and leave. For now only one or two cattle are selling here and there.

Eid-ul-Azha, the second-biggest religious festival of Muslims, will be celebrated in the country on Monday, 17 June. At this festival of sacrifice, Muslims sacrifice animals in the hope of pleasing Allah.

A visit to the Shonir Akhra market on the morning of 13 June found traders waiting with cattle and goats across a vast area, and cattle arriving by truck from various places being unloaded at different points of the market.

The market has spread along both sides of the Dhaka–Chattogram highway from Kajla all the way to Rayerbagh. Because markets have also sprung up on roads around Gobindapur, Nayapara, Shekhdi and nearby, traffic there has almost stopped already, causing great hardship to residents, who fear it may get worse over the next two days.

Sellers said traders were currently asking whatever prices they liked, while buyers walked around trying to understand the market. Those with space to keep an animal for a day or two were buying if the price was right.

Traders believe that, all things considered, prices of sacrificial animals may be somewhat lower this year. They said trading would really start on Friday and continue until Sunday, and that the true state of prices would become clear then.

Md Kamrul Islam from Magura has set up with his cattle at the Baganbari slope in Shonir Akhra. "I brought eight cattle in total and have already sold two," he told Jagonews24.

He said cattle prices were the same as last year, but the market felt a little weak. "I sold one of the two for Tk 1 lakh 61 thousand and the other for Tk 1.5 lakh."

"Prices seem a bit lower this time," Kamrul said, "because buyers are offering less today than they did a day ago. A bull that drew an offer of Tk 1 lakh 70 thousand on Wednesday is not going above Tk 1.5 lakh today."

Five men arrived from Sirajganj on Thursday with one large bull and have set up on the north side of the Shonir Akhra flyover, all five busy looking after it. They are asking Tk 10 lakh. Rafiqul Islam, one of them, said: "We have raised this bull for four years. We will sell if we get Tk 10 lakh."

Billal Sheikh brought 15 cattle from Bhanga in Faridpur. "We came last Wednesday and haven't been able to sell a single one yet. Sales haven't started, though one or two are going here and there. I hope the main trading starts from Friday," he said. He added that their costs had exceeded other years, "but only Allah knows how the market will be."

Mukaddir, who brought five cattle from Sirajganj, said none had sold yet. "My maternal uncle has come with forty cattle, and none of his have sold either," he said. "My cattle are priced at Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh. So far the market seems low. The main trading will be on Saturday and Sunday. Let's see what happens."

Akmot Shikder brought six large cattle from Faridpur and is asking more than Tk 5 lakh for each. He said costs had been roughly the same as last year. One animal broke its leg while being unloaded and developed a fever from the pain, so he had to sell the Tk 5 lakh animal to butchers for Tk 2 lakh.

Many people were walking around looking at cattle. One of them, Siddiqur Rahman of Matuail Graveyard Road, told Jagonews24: "I am trying to understand the prices. The traders are asking a lot. There is no medium-sized cow below Tk 1.5 lakh."

Md Kamruzzaman, lessee of the Shonir Akhra market, told Jagonews24 that sales had effectively not yet begun. "So far at most 20 to 25 cattle have been sold. We hope sales will start from tonight."

"We want to bring at least 15,000 cattle to the market. If 15,000 cattle are not sold, we will make a loss," he said. "We did a count last night and found about five and a half thousand cattle in the market so far."

On prices, he said traders were still not coming down and were asking random prices. The real price would become clear in another day.

The lessee said the market would spread to all the vacant spaces around the Donia College ground, but insisted they were not setting up outside the approved area. Volunteers were working to keep highway traffic moving, and four traffic police, two on each side of the road, were on duty. "We are doing everything we can to make sure the market does not cause traffic jams," he said.

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