With Eid-ul-Azha, one of the Muslim community’s biggest religious festivals, just around the corner, Chittagong city’s eight cattle markets are abuzz with buyers and traders while sales are gaining momentum amid claims that prices this year are “reasonable”.
Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) leased out for around Tk 2 crore six makeshift markets in Dhanialapara, Patenga, Salt Gola, Karnaphuli Haat, Steel Mill Bazar and Kamal Mahazan Haat.
Moreover, two permanent markets, in Sagarika and Bibirhat areas, were leased out for a year for Tk 5.17 crore and Tk 2 crore respectively.
CCC Estate Officer Ahmedul Haque said police and Rapid Action Battalion were giving their foremost effort to maintain security in the markets while Bangladesh Bank and some private banks provided machines to detect fake currency.
Leaseholder of the Bibirhat market, Md Shahjahan, said around 5,000 traders with over 70,000 cattle had arrived there from Kushtia, Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi, Bogra, Jhenidah, Meherpur, Faridpur, Comilla and Pabna.
Sales gained momentum since Saturday with prices ranging from Tk 20,000 to Tk 1 lakh, he said.
Leaseholder of the Karnaphuli market, Rafiq Saodagor, said a significant portion of the around 10,000 cattle of some 1,000 traders there were from India, Nepal and Myanmar, each priced between Tk 50,000 and Tk 1 lakh.
With supply abundant, cattle prices are relatively low, he said.
He also complained that many traders avoided coming to his market as Chittagong Development Authority closed off the road leading to it from Bahaddarhat Intersection for two days till yesterday for the inauguration of a flyover.
One customer at the Sagorika market, Abdul Aziz, told The Daily Star that traders were selling off their cattle early at a reasonable price this year as prices dropped in the final days to Eid last year.
A trader in the market, Abdur Rahim, supported this, stating that traders incurred huge losses last year. “So the traders are very cautious. Arrival of a huge number of Indian cattle has further reduced the price,” he said.
Traders are hoping for sales to peak a day or two before Eid, as in last year. Most residents do not have the space to keep the animals and prefer to buy those in the final days to Eid, said a Bibirhat resident, Arshed Haider.
-With The Daily Star input
