Cattle traders are frustrated because of falling cattle prices due to the high supply of sacrificial animals at Gazir Bazar haat in Kaliganj upazila of Jhenaidah.
For Eid-ul-Azha, Gazir Bazar haat houses a lot of cattle coming in from around 150 villages of 18 upazilas in Jessore, Magura, and Jhenaidah.
Traders highlighted three main reasons for low sales, that include: floods having affected customers financially, insufficient customers from affluent parts of the country, and too much cattle from traders.
On a visit to the cattle market on Monday, this correspondent saw almost 4,000 heads of cattle on display, but not many customers, driving them to bargain with traders. Cattle traders said approximately Tk3 crore worth of sacrificial animals were there that day. The price of a cow for sacrifice has on average fallen at least Tk10,000-Tk20,000 compared to prices last year. Sellers and businessmen in the market were disappointed by their losses this year.
Lutfur Rahman from Fazilpur village of Kotchandpur upazila in Jhenaidah, said he brought four cows to sell in the market but was able to sell only one for Tk60,000. He added that the price should have been at least Tk70,000.
Shaheb Ali from Magura, said: "I have been in the cattle business for 48 years. I think because of the flood situation across the country, the demand is low for cattle."
He too was able to sell only one cow at a price of Tk53,000.
Abdur Rahim another seller of the same upazila, said he had bought a cow for Tk87,000, but was able to sell that for only Tk85,000. Because of the additional expenses and the loss in sale price, he suffered a loss of at least Tk5000.
Abdur Razzak, from Bagherpara upazila, Jessore, said: He brought a cow weighing 4 maunds, which should have sold for Tk90,000, but it went for Tk80,000 only.
Shafirul Islam, from Salua village of Magura district, said: "This year the number of buyers from outside Jhenaidah, and especially Dhaka, are low. This is one of the reasons for the low price of cattle." He added that he sold a cow for the same price he bought it at.
Sagar Biswas, the leaseholder of the cattle market, said: "Our cattle market supplies the best quality cattle in the district. Every year thousands of heads of cattle are traded, but this year the sales are low relative to supply."
