Litchi season to get fleeting this year
The litchi season may end sooner than usual this season as unfavourable weather conditions resulted in lower production of the sugary tropical fruit, according to industry insiders.
The season is often 45 days long nonetheless it may not last for even a month this season as production was nowhere near to the expected level, said traders and plantation owners in Dinajpur.
Litchi is grown across all 64 districts of the united states but just 26 of these are engaged in professional production.
The litchies from Dinajpur, the greatest growing district, are saturated in demand for its exceptional flavour, size and colour.
Litchi arrived in the markets halfway through May this season despite the fact that the harvests usually commence by the end of May or early June every year.
"We started plucking early this season as it ripened early on," explained Moslem Uddin, a litchi grower of Dhukurjhari village under Biral upazila of Dinajpur.
Litchis from encircling upazilas hit a seasonal market in Dinajpur town about a week ago, said local traders.
During a check out to the momentary market, which may be the largest wholesale promote in Dinajpur town, this kind of correspondent found traders moving busy times. Traders from various other districts also resource litchi from the marketplace.
Several varieties of the fruit are produced in Dinajpur, including Madrazi, Bombai, Bedana, Kathali and China 1, 2 and 3. Of them, the Madrazi assortment has recently flooded the market segments while Bedana is on a small scale.
The Bombai and China 1, 2 and 3 varieties will get to a couple of weeks, they added.
A 100-piece bunch of Madrazi litchi is being sold for Tk 200 to Tk 280 according to the product quality and size while Bedana is available between Tk 500 and Tk 700.
Considering the low source amid high demand, traders say prices may rise.
Mozahar Ali, a farmer of Paikpara village underneath Dinajpur Sadar upazila, said he brought his litchis to the neighborhood wholesale market on the market on Monday.
"Price is good but the production was irritating against expectations," he added.
Ali went on to say that litchi creation has dropped by round 70 per cent simply because he grew the fruit on just simply 10 trees this year in comparison to 60 trees in 2020.
Md Munna, a farmer of Mashimpur village beneath the same upazila, said litchi would turn into pricier if the ongoing nationwide lockdown was withdrawn.
Investors from other districts are actually being able to go to Dinajpur unhindered only out of this week due to previously public transportation had remained suspended amid a good slew of actions imposed by the federal government to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Even though the investors from surrounding districts started coming to Dinajpur on tiny trucks, their numbers are not high enough to create reasonable profits, Munna added.
According to data out of the Section of Horticulture's Dinajpur business office, litchi was grown about 5,600 hectares of land this year with total production apt to be around 45,000 tonnes, which will is approximately 30 per cent less than that last year.
The marketplace value of the produced litchi is around Tk 550 crore.
Prodip Kumar Guha, deputy director of the horticulture business office, said production due to high temperature ranges between December and January.
There are around 4,000 commercial litchi orchards in Dinajpur.
Other than Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Pancahgarh, litchi plucking also were only available in various other districts, including Pabna.
According to the Directorate of Agricultural Expansion in Dhaka, gross annual litchi production was about 2.40 lakh tonnes.
In 2018-19, the united states produced around 2.30 lakh tonnes of the fruit with a lion's share from the Dinajpur and Pabna districts.
