Demand for high-value crops tumbles
Farmers who cultivate high-value crops such as for example broccoli, lettuce and avocado have observed their sales stop by about 50 % as a result of Covid-19 fallout.
Winter is the main growing season for high-value crops, and lots of produce has already found its way to the Dhaka and Chattogram markets.
However, these vegetables are for sale by street vendors and local kitchen markets at lower prices amid low demand.
According to vegetable traders in the capital, high-value crops mainly come from Savar, Gazipur, Munshiganj, Chattogram, Bhola and Bogura.
The produce comes to high-end restaurants and hotels that cater mostly foreigners.
Kobbad Hossain Ovi, a 36-year-old farmer from Dokkhin Mitka village under Dhaka's Savar upazila, invested about Tk 70 lakh to Tk 80 lakh to cultivate various high-value vegetables on 200 bighas of land this season.
But when the outbreak started in March, sales dropped 90 per cent as the country's hotels and restaurants were closed.
"I used to join up sales of Tk 20-25 lakh every month during the pre-pandemic period, however now, I sell just Tk 10 lakh monthly," Ovi said.
His gross annual sales were Tk 1.80 crore in 2019, if the situation worsens as a result of Covid-19, he would need to count losses of over Tk 50 lakh this year, he added.
Ovi went on to state that he didn't receive any sort of incentive or support from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) to handle the ongoing crisis.
When contacted, Rafiqul Islam Bhuiyan, deputy director of the DAE Dhaka office, said that the organisation will not provide any such incentives for farmers who cultivate foreign vegetables.
Similarly, Mostafizar Rahman, a farmer of Songkorpur village under Bogura's Shibganj upazila, has been cultivating foreign crops since 2003.
He used to produce a profit of around Tk 10 lakh on his harvest, but this season, he has already established to count losses of Tk 30,000-Tk 40,000 every month amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The demand for various spices and vegetables dropped about 40 to 50 per cent because of the pandemic.
"Therefore, I am left to count my losses, and if the situation continues for long, I will need to give up on growing foreign crops," Rahman said.
Abu Taher, a farmer of Khaskandi village under Munshiganj's Sirajdikhan upazila, said that he has a lot more than 60 permanent workers that have been paid regularly even amid the existing crisis.
"But I have already lost Tk 40 lakh as a result of sharp decrease in demand," Taher said.
Photo: COLLECTED
Ansar Ali, a renowned farmer of Bogura's Shibganj upazila, used to cultivate foreign crops on 30 bighas of land, including six varieties of capsicum, broccoli, Shimla chilli, asparagus and Iceberg lettuce.
But this season, he could cultivate foreign crops on just 15 bighas of land due to the low market demand. Besides, repeated flooding following bad weather damaged a lot of his crops.
"As a result of wetland, I could not cultivate vegetables promptly. As a result of coronavirus, rains and floods, I have had to count losses of Tk 10 lakh because the pandemic hit the united states," Ali said.
He said if they had cold storage facilities in the area, they could have at least kept the vegetables until they improved prices.
Osman Ali, a foreign vegetable vendor of Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, said that foreigners will be the primary consumers of the high-value crops.
However the number of foreign tourists in Bangladesh has fallen as a result of pandemic and therefore, so gets the sale of foreign vegetables, he said.
There are 28 foreign vegetable vendors in Karwan Bazar, and before the coronavirus arrived on the shores of Bangladesh, that they had sold around Tk 20-25 lakh worth of vegetables every day. Now, sales have dwindled to around Tk 15 lakh although this is actually the peak time of harvesting, traders said.
"Prior to the coronavirus, I used to market foreign vegetables worth Tk 4 lakh monthly. Now, I make about Tk 2 lakh," Ali said.
Green capsicum was worth Tk 250 per kilogram as the red and yellow varieties were Tk 450 per kg prior to the outbreak. Currently, they retail at Tk 100 and Tk 250 respectably.
Another trader in the Riaz Uddin Market in Chattogram said that he used to sell 150 kg of foreign vegetables daily through the pre-pandemic period. The total amount has since decreased to 50 kg.
"Prior to the outbreak, many top-class businessmen and foreign delegates would visit our hotel. Their existence has dropped by at least 7 %," said Sonjoy Bhowmick, a senior executive of sales at the Peninsula Chittagong.
"So, we usually do not purchase as many foreign vegetables as we did during the past since local guests usually don't eat them."
