Incurring loss, cattle traders leaving Dhaka with animals
Mohammad Azgar Ali was excited when he came to Dhupkhola cattle market in Dhaka with his 16 bulls -- hoping to make good profit like last year. But that excitement dissipated as he had to incur loss when selling most of the animals and some remain unsold.
"I've faced a loss of Tk 3 lakh already, selling 11 bulls. So I'm taking back the rest of my bulls home," said Azgar, who came to Dhaka from Jhenaidah.
"I will face Tk 10,000 loss for each as I take them back. But if I would sell them here, I would face Tk 50,000 to 60,000 loss for each bull," said Azgar who was preparing to take his bulls back on a truck around 8:00 am today.
Azgar said several dozen trucks carrying bulls left the market and the picture is same at every cattle market in Dhaka. He added that they purchased additional bulls this year, thinking that there will be a shortage of sacrificial animals in Bangladesh but they were wrong. The number of the animals were higher compared to customers.
Ismail Hossain, who was preparing to take his four bulls back from the cattle market, said, "I asked for Tk 14 lakh for my large bull, weighing around 22 maunds, but at the end I was ready to sell it for Tk 4.5 lakh. Even then, it remained unsold."
However, Ismail decided to sell these animals to meat traders at reasonable prices.
Saiful Islam, another cattle trader at Dhupkhola who brought 15 bulls, could not sell five of them and faced Tk 5 lakh loss, selling 10.
Many are not sacrificing animals this year or are sharing with others due to the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent fallout, according to traders.
Mohammad Sohel, a businessman and a resident of Gandaria who used to sacrifice a cow every year, could not afford to buy an animal this year as his income took a hit.
According to statistics of the Department of Livestock Services, about 1.19 crore cattle are reared each year on average for sacrifice during Eid-ul-Azha. Last year, over 1.1 crore animals were sacrificed during the religious festival across the country.
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