With the ban on harvesting lifted and after a week's delay in ripening, mangoes have finally started making an appearance in the markets in Chapainawabganj, a district famous for its high quality mangoes, since Monday.

Most of the mangoes available at the market so far are of the Gopalbhog variety and some of the Guti variety. Harvest officially began on May 20.

The district's mango market at Puraton Bazar yesterday morning saw an abundant supply of mangoes with Gopalbhog being sold at Tk 1600 to 2000 per maund.

But there was a lack of customers compared to the usual throng during mango season.

Mango sellers, who have been coming to the market since Monday, said since harvest was delayed by seven to ten days, customers did not know when mangoes would be available in the markets, and so had not visited the market.

Abdus Samad, a mango trader of Majhpara, said mangoes, especially Gopalbhog, had been available at the market since Monday, but there hadn't been many customers yet.

Another trader, Faruk Hossain of Shahibag, has been coming to the market since Monday to sell 10 maunds of Gopalbhog mangoes, but has only sold four maunds so far due to lack of buyers.

Due to temperatures being lower than required during the time when the mangoes are supposed to ripen, the harvest began a week later than usual. 

Sorof Uddin, senior scientific officer of Regional Horticulture Research Station in Chapainawabganj, said near the end of cultivation, the day's temperature is required to be over 30 degree Celsius for mangoes to ripen, but it hardly crossed 30 degree Celsius.

Earlier, the district administration of Chapainawabganj, in a meeting with the officials of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Regional Horticulture Research Station (RHRS), chairmen of different upazila parishads, Chapainawabganj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, other related organisations and mango traders, imposed a ban on harvesting mangoes until a set date to prevent artificial ripening of the fruit before.

While harvesting Gopalbhog mangoes began on May 20, different dates have been fixed for harvesting other varieties of mangoes depending on their ripening period.

In 2017 a total of 2.44 lakh tonnse of mango was produced on 26,150 hectares of land.

With 22 lakh 60 thousand mango trees on 29,510 hectares of land, this year over 2.44 lakh tonnes of mangoes are expected to be produced in the district, said Monjurul Huda, deputy director of DAE, Chapainawabganj.