The crash in cattle prices due to abundant supply left traders with broken hearts in the makeshift markets across capital Dhaka.
Most of the traders have counted losses as prices started to fall sharply from Tuesday morning forcing traders to cut prices on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.
Manikganj’s Younus Ali along with 12 others from his village came to Dhaka with 26 cows and camped at the Meradia cattle market in Dhaka. Until Monday, they sold eight from the herd, but on Tuesday there were no buyers for the remaining 18.
“The cows which were being offered to sell at Tk 60,000 on Monday, is fetching only Tk 25,000. At this price let alone, we will be counting huge losses,” he said while speaking to Bangla Tribune late on Tuesday.
“I have two school-going children, who will not even be able to go to the Eid congregation, if I don’t return with money. How will I go back,” a sobbing Ali said.
Tabibur Rahman from Kushtia travelled to Dhaka with 22 rather large cows and was hoping to fetch Tk 200,000 for each. On Tuesday, he was being offered a maximum of Tk 80,000. None of his cows were sold.
Around 10pm, he was seen loading the cattle on a truck heading back to Kushtia.
“I have spent Tk 55,000 in truck rent — Tk 2,500 for each cow to transport them here and now spending Tk 3,000 each to take them back. My entire investment has lost. Since they are rather large cows, no one wants to buy them, not even bargained,” he told Bangla Tribune.
It’s the same in the 25 makeshift cattle markets in Dhaka, where traders from across the country have been camping for over the last seven days in the hope to make some money ahead of the Eid.
Cattle prices steeply fell from the early hours of Tuesday due to a lack of buyers against sufficient supply. However, that was not the case the previous days, when buyers and traders were found bargaining.
But that changed on Tuesday when buyers had all the leverage due to the supply glut.
Traders said cows from India and Myanmar started to enter the cattle markets in Dhaka, but they had the idea that will not be the case this year leading to a supply crunch on the eve of the Eid.
The price crash, however, left customers with all smiles as those who had gone to the cattle markets in the final hours got a food bargain.
“I bought a rather large cow for Tk 120,000 from Gabtali and it was a very good bargain,” Shah Alam, a resident of Dhaka’s Shegunbagicha, told Bangla Tribune on Tuesday morning.
Traders are still waiting at Gabtali, the largest cattle market in Dhaka, in the hope to sell of their cows to customers who opt the day after Eid to sacrifice animals.
Md Latfur Rahman, one of the operators of the Gabtali cattle market, described this year’s scenario as “very bad”.
“The supply is abundant with a good number of cows from India. Traders with cows raised in local farms are in trouble as they are finding hard to make money. A lot of them have sold-off in lower prices,” he told Bangla Tribune.
The same scenario was found at other large markets in capital.
Najimuddin have come Dinajpur with four cows.
Speaking to Bangla Tribune Wednesday morning at the Aftabnagar market, he said, “These cows were raised in farm. But the price now offered is no good. But then again I can’t afford to take them back.”