Cattle sales yet to gain momentum
Despite Eid-ul-Azha being just two days away, the cattle markets of Dhaka city have not yet gained momentum due to a lack of customers. Till this evening, a number of sacrificial animals, especially bulls, were present at all 16 cattle markets in Dhaka, but customer turnout was notably low until 5:00pm.
During visits to the Kamalapur and Kachukhet cattle markets, contrasting situations were observed. Kachukhet was flooded with bulls, while Kamalapur had 20-30 percent fewer bulls, according to traders and customers.
One thing common though was a thin presence of buyers, despite today being a holiday.
Government data shows 1.29 crore sacrificial animals are available this year, an increase of 4,44,034 from last year, with an excess of 22.8 lakh cattle compared to the demand.
This year, around 52 lakh cows, 1.60 lakh buffaloes, 68 lakh goats, 767,743 sheep, and 1,850 other animals are up for sale.
Sentu Bepary, a cattle trader from Meherpur, said, "We seven cattle traders brought 37 bulls to the Kamalapur cattle market four days ago, but have only sold one so far due to the low presence of customers."
Mannan Bepary, who brought 12 bulls from Sirajganj to Kamalapur, disagreed with the government statistics. "In our area, many cattle farmers did not raise bulls this year due to the high price of cattle feed and last year's losses," he said.
He noted that the number of bulls at the Kamalapur market is 30 percent less compared to last year.
"We hope the sales will peak up on the last day before Eid. However, last year's experience was very bad with many bulls remaining unsold or sold at low prices on the last day," Mannan added.
Ismail Hossain, another trader, blamed the high prices of cattle this year on the expensive cattle feed. Others echoed him.
Shamshul Islam, a trader at Kachukhet who brought six bulls from Kishoreganj, expressed fear of incurring losses like last year.
"I faced a loss of Tk 30,000 last year and hoped for a profit this year, but the market's situation doesn't look promising," he said.
Nurul Islam, a customer from Bhasantek, said the current prices are similar to last year's.
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