The ongoing heat wave听has increased the demand for green coconuts as many are rushing for its water to quench their thirst. They are paying a hefty price too.
The price of green coconut has soared by Tk 30-60 per piece while a small-sized green coconut is being sold at Tk 100 in the capital. The medium and large-sized green coconut is selling at Tk 150-200 per piece even, a record price.
Jusinur, who sells green coconut at Motijheel area on a van, told UNB that wholesalers had increased prices of green coconut by Tk 30-60 per piece after recent Eid vacation.
He said that he had never seen such a big hike in price in the five years he has been in the business. Not even during the Covid pandemic.
Imbrahim Sarder, a wholesaler of green coconut and fruits at Badamtoli of Sdarghat, told this correspondent that the demand, which was low immediately after Eid-ul-Fitr, made a big jump when the extreme heat wave came.
These retail vendors purchase the green coconuts at higher price from the large suppliers of the growers and this raises the price at the wholesale market, he said.
Similar high prices of green coconut were seen outside Dhaka Medical College, in Gulistan, Paltan and Shahbagh areas on Sunday.
Karwan Bazar, a wholesale market, also saw a higher price of green coconut. The traders claimed that the prices of green coconut rose at the supply points in Barishal, Bhola, Bagerhat, Noakhali, Faridpur, Jashore and Mymensingh regions.
At the supply level, prices of green coconut have increased by Tk 30 per piece over the last 10 days.
A wholesaler Surja Ali told UNB that green coconut was being sold in a lot of 100 pieces with price ranging from Tk 12,000-14,000. Such a high price was not seen earlier.
The prices were less than Tk 2,000 to 3,000 even during the Ramadan.
According to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, a green coconut was sold at an average of Tk 22 in 2009. In 2020, the price increased to Tk 74 per piece.
Currently, the average price does go below Tk 100 per piece, said SM Nazer Hossain, vice-president of CAB.
The production of coconut fell to 5,10,360 tonnes in 38,221 hectares of land in FY 2021-22 from 6,88,691 tonnes in 46,960 hectares of land in FY 2016-17, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension.
Analysing the DAE data, it was found that the production of coconut started to fall after FY 2019-20. The production of coconut was 6,63,851 tonnes in FY 2017-18, 6,50,932 tonnes in FY 2018-19, 6,53,520 tonnes in FY 2019-20, 5,19,458 tonnes in FY 2020-21 and 5,10,360 tonnes in FY 2021-22.
The highest was 88,000 tonnes of coconut produced in Bhola district in FY 2021-22 while the production in the district was 1,23,950 tons in FY 2016-17.
Mehedi Masood, project director of Year-Round Fruit Production for Nutrition Improvement under the DAE, said that cultivation of coconut was not increasing to match with the rise in the country鈥檚 population.听
鈥楤ecause of rising demand, the price of both green coconut and coconut increased sharply in the country,鈥� he said.
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