The unhappiest Eid for cattle farmers and traders
Hundreds of thousands of cattle are set to remain unsold this Eid season thanks to coronavirus, which has eaten up the income of the country's burgeoning middle-class and also instilled the fear of coronavirus contagion among the upper class for partaking in the sacrificial ritual.
The reluctance of the two classes has left thousands of cattle farmers are now staring at massive losses.
Buoyed by the stellar returns last year, when he sold all of his 140 cows one and half months before Eid, Md Akbar Alam Upal, managing director of Fit and Fresh Agro in Keraniganj Upazila, reared 300 cows for this season.
Until yesterday, he managed to sell only 60 cows and at prices 20 to 25 per cent lower than last year.
For instance, he sold a cow weighing 640 kg at Tk 2.20 lakh, the minimum price of which should be around Tk 3 lakh.
"Every year big corporate groups would buy 30-40 cows for their factory employees. But this year they are not participating in Qurbani," Upal told The Daily Star yesterday.
Upal already sequestered 150 cows for next season because of the low price.
"But, it is also not a good move as I have to feed them fodder and other ingredients. And the cattle would not grow much after a certain point."
Last year, he invested about Tk 3 crore and got Tk 30 lakh in profit. This year, he spent Tk 8 crore and is estimating losses to the tune of Tk 60 lakh.
Cattle farming has been a new phenomenon among literate youths in the country ever since neighbouring India imposed a ban on the export of cows to Bangladesh in 2014.
Boosted by success stories in dairy farming, Shahidul Islam Razu entered the business two years back after completing his Master's degree from a government college in the capital. Last year, he sold all of his 20 cows and pocketed a profit of Tk 4 lakh.
This year, his Modern Dairy Farm in Keraniganj reared 25 cows and so far they managed to sell just one cow.
Desperate to get rid of the cattle, he is now offering discounts of Tk 5,000 to 7,000 on each cow.
"But, there are no customers. I think people have no money," he said, adding that he is hard-selling on Facebook too but found no response.
Regardless, he has to sell the cows at a lower price this Eid or two months later because it costs a lot to feed them, he added.
Besides the economic downturn brought on by the rogue virus, there are two other reasons for the dire situation in cattle trading, said Md Imran Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers' Association (BDFA).
One is that the very rich who used to sacrifice big cows every year are not participating in Qurbani this time for fear of the virus and the other is the restriction on performing Qurbani imposed by flat owners' associations or housing societies.
"Many want to perform Qurbani due to their religious obligation but are unable to do so due to the barricade put by the associations."
Hossain, the owner of Sadeeq Agro, one of the country's biggest dairy farms located in the capital Mohammadpur, went on to urge the government to remove these obstacles to save thousands of centrifugal poor cow farmers.
Sadeeq Agro prepared 2,100 cows for this Eid and so far managed to sell only 450.
Last year, the farm had sold 75 per cent of its cattle two weeks before Eid. He had reared 1,900 cows.
He projects more than 1,000 cows would remain unsold this year.
Hossain also demanded the government to provide money from the stimulus package to the suffering dairy farmers so that they can continue in the business.
SMALL COWS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND
As coronavirus ate away significant portions of people's income, buyers are opting for a small cow.
Buyers who used to avail cows worth Tk 1 lakh or Tk 1.2 lakh are now looking for cows worth Tk 65,000 to Tk 75,000 this time, said cattle trader Kakoli Khan, the owner of Shuddho Krishi, an f-commerce site.
According to her, 90 per cent of her customers prefer small cows.
Ecommerce platforms involved in cattle trading also confirmed that small cows are being sold as soon as they are uploaded on the site.
"Professional dairy farmers usually sell big cows. This time, the demand for big cows is low. So, they will face huge losses in the business," said Hossain, president of the BDFA.
However, according to Khan, the demand for goats is high. She has already taken 31 orders for goats.
NORTH BENGAL FARMERS HIT HARD
Beside coronavirus, northern cattle farmers were fighting with lumpy skin disease (LSD) as their cattle were getting infected at an alarming pace by another highly contagious virus LSD.
Now, they are facing a new backlash: sustaining flood.
Abdul Aziz of Kurigram districts Fulpur Bazar area has to take shelter on THE street with his cattle Because the flood has submerged his house and farmhouse.
"Hundreds of cows have now been brought to the streets," Aziz told The Daily Star yesterday.
Saidul Alam, a cattle trader, brought his 32 cows to the street.
He bought a total of 42 cows, of which only ten have been sold with a nominal profit.
"I can't sleep thinking about how to sell the remaining 32 cows as there are no customers," he added.
It is the same story among the cattle traders and farmers in neighbouring Lalmonirhat district.
Abdul Hakim, a cattle farmer, has sold just one of his five cows at a loss of Tk 23,000.
"Flood and coronavirus have destroyed our business," he said, adding that he is staring at losses of Tk 1.25 lakh if he has to sell his cattle at the current price.
This year 1.19 crore cattle have been prepared for Qurbani, up from 1.18 crore last year, according to the Department of Livestock Services.
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