Sales yet to gather pace

 A cow leaps from a trawler carrying the sacrificial animals from the northern region to the capital for sale via Aricha. The photo was taken on Friday. syed zakir hossainSales of sacrificial animals in the capital are yet to get momentum on Friday, only two days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, much to the woes of traders.

Thin presence of buyers has dashed the traders? hope for a sales boom at permanent cattlehead markets, including 13 makeshift ones.

Maqbul, a trader at Gabtoli cattlehead market, said the sales of his cattle have registered poor as most of his animals remained unsold.

?There might be an aggressive sales pitch from Saturday,? he hoped.

The number of sacrificial cows, camels and goats in the markets is higher than that of the last year, Lokman, another trader, told daily sun.

?We expected a huge sales volume of today (Friday),? he said.

Visiting different makeshift markets in different areas, this correspondent found poor sales of the sacrificial animals.

Dhaka City Corporation has allowed 13 makeshift cattle markets in the capital this year.

The markets are at Jhigatala-Hazaribagh ground, Taltala (Khilgaon) bus stand, Agargaon (adjacent to LGED Bhaban), Dhupkhola playground, Rahmatganj playground, Banarupa housing project at Khilkhet, Uttar Shahjahanpur, Azampur (Uttara) Government Primary School playground, Purbachal, Balurmath (adjacent to Brothers? Union Sporting Club in Kamalapur), Meradia Bazar playground, Armanitola (adjacent to Chittra Cinema Hall) and Banani-Kakoli level crossing.

Many see two more holidays (Saturday and Sunday) before Eid the key reason behind poor sales. People will be frenetic to buy cattle at that time, said trader Abdul Matin at Taltala market.

Cattle trader Jabbar Ali, who came to Khilgaon market from Barisal with eight cows, expressed frustration and said, ?I sold only five cows to retailers with low profits,? he added.

Traders fear that they will have to count huge losses if more Indian cows are brought to the metropolis on the remaining days.

However, buyer Hossain Ali alleged that traders charge high price of the cattle despite huge presence of sacrificial animals in the markets this year.

As the frontier areas between Bangladesh and India remain calm this year, more Indian cows are projected to flood the local markets, resulting in a fall in the prices of local cows.

Many traders have brought Indian cows of bigger sizes to the markets with the price of nearly Tk 4 lakh each.

Source: daily-sun.com

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