The prices of seasonal cauliflower, cabbage and radish have plunged in the Bogura鈥檚 Mahasthangarh market, the largest vegetable market in the north, but consumers in Dhaka city are buying the vegetables at very high prices due to dominance of middlemen in the supply chain.
The low prices have disappointed the growers who are failing to recover even the productions costs and the high prices in Dhaka have frustrated the city dwellers amid soaring inflation.
Consumers attributed the soaring vegetable prices in the city markets to control of middlemen on the supply chain and retailers blamed middlemen and wholesalers for the situation.
On Thursday, cauliflower and cabbage were sold at Tk聽1.5 a kilogram while radish at Tk 2.5 a kilogram on the wholesale market.
As cauliflower usually sells in maund on the wholesale market, a cauliflower on average cost Tk聽2聽 on the market on the day.
But in the capital Dhaka, a piece of cauliflower sold for Tk 40-50 while radish cost for Tk 20-30 a kilogram on Friday.
Rafiqul Islam, a farmer at Golabari village under Gabtali upazila in Bogura, who cultivated cauliflower on four bighas of land with the hope of making profits, told 抖阴精品 that he had incurred a loss of Tk 1.50 lakh.
鈥楾he cost of transporting a maund (40 kilograms) of cauliflower to the Mahasthangarh market from my land is Tk 60, while the price of one maund of cauliflower is Tk 40,鈥� he lamented.
Rafiqul said that he was in a perplexed situation thinking how he would repay the loan that he took from a local non-governmental organisation for cultivating the cauliflower.
Abdul Kader, a vegetable seller at Mirzapur Bazar of Sherpur upazila in the district, said that the consumer鈥檚 demand for cauliflower and radish had decreased, resulting in most of the vegetables he bought from a farmer to be rotten.
On the wholesale market, sights of stacks of cauliflower left behind by dejected farmers are common, Kader said.
Selling the vegetable item means nothing and taking it back home cost more, he said, adding that so they just left it behind.
Md Matlubar Rahman, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Bogura, said that the prices of the winter vegetables, especially cauliflower and radish, had fallen due to an excess supply on the market.
鈥業t is normal that the prices of vegetables will decrease when there will be enough supply,鈥� he added.
Abdul Hannan Sarkar, upazila agricultural officer at Shibganj, said that farmers who cultivated cauliflower in advance made good profits.
鈥榁egetables produced in Bogura are mainly supplied to various parts of the country using trucks. Since cauliflower and radish are available everywhere, the prices of the vegetables have decreased,鈥� he said, adding that they were advising the farmers to grow vegetables in advance.
On the Rajshahi kitchen market, cauliflower and cabbage were sold at Tk 7-8 a kilogram while radish at Tk 15 a kilogram on Thursday.
Md Yusuf, a vegetable vendor in the Hatirpool area in Dhaka, stated, 鈥榃e make Tk 2-4 profit in a piece of cauliflower, or in a kilogram of radish. The farmers that produce these vegetables suffer losses. They don鈥檛 even get their production costs back after selling the produces. The price rises due to middlemen.鈥�
A vegetable buyer at New Market said, 鈥榊es, there are costs, including transport, storage and a few other things. But the cost is not that much that the price would surge from Tk 2-3 apiece to Tk聽40-50 apiece.鈥�
