BDRunner, March 20:- Watermelon is one of the most demanded fruits of the summer season. In the meantime, the demand for watermelon has increased a lot as Ramadan has started. Along with that, its price has increased accordingly. At the beginning of the season, the watermelons of the Muktarpur area of Munshiganj have accumulated.
Watermelons worth crores of rupees are being sold every day in a few stalls of Munshiganj’s Muktarpur. Every day from morning to night there is a market selling watermelons. Dhaleshwari River is next to the market and the main road to Munshiganj city on the other side, watermelons can be easily brought to this place by river and road.
Going to the surface, it can be seen that as soon as the morning light breaks, the watermelon market accumulates here. The entire market area is buzzing with the hustle and bustle of buyers and sellers. Watermelons come from different parts of the country in this market. As soon as a truck arrives, the labourer’s buyers and sellers of the farm get busy. The workers took it down from the truck and brought it to the huts. At the time of unloading, 100 to 150 watermelons are piled at each place in front of the art, depending on the size. Later they are sold at different prices depending on the size.
The largest size watermelon is being sold as a piece for 500 taka in the market of Muktarpur. Apart from this, the price of medium-sized watermelon is 300 to 500 taka. Traders bought watermelons from this market to other markets in Munshiganj and neighbouring districts.
Local traders said that as soon as the dawn light broke, the workers started unloading watermelons and bungi from the trucks and trawlers. At different times, watermelon farmers and traders load the trawlers with bunches of watermelons and dump them at the river ghats. Later they started selling all these watermelons and bangi in the markets here from 6 am to 12 pm. It takes many days to sell one trawler of watermelon. Apart from Munshiganj, wholesale and retail buyers from Dhaka, Narayanganj, Comilla, and Gazipur also come here to buy these bangi-watermelons.
Talking to art owner associations, traders and farmers, it is known that 6 to 7 years ago, one or two avatars used to get at here. At that time, two or four traders and farmers used to bring their produced Bangi-watermelons. There were very few buyers and sellers then. However, this picture has changed in the last three years. Sales have increased tremendously. There has been an increase in the number of buyers and sellers. Every day, one lakh pieces of watermelon come to this market from Barisal, Faridpur, Patuakhali, Barguna, and Bhola during the peak season more than two lakh watermelons are collected in this market. Bangi comes from Comilla, Chandpur along with various upazilas of Munshiganj.
Govind Chandra Das, a farmer of the Rangabali area of Patuakhali district who came to sell watermelons this year, said that about 25 per cent of the seedlings were destroyed due to heavy rains during the watermelon planting season this year. Moreover, the cost of transportation to bring watermelons has increased a lot. Due to the high price of labour fertilizers, it cost us about 100 rupees to produce each watermelon this year. Regarding the high prices, he said, the watermelons have just started to rise. The price will decrease in the future.
Billal, a watermelon seller at Baligaon market in Tongibari upazila said, I come to this market every three days to buy watermelon. Watermelons are grown in abundance in this market and are available throughout the day. As watermelons of all sizes are always available here, wholesalers come from far and wide to buy watermelons here.
The owner of mother’s prayers. Johnny Ghazi said we have 10/12 per cent of watermelons sold in this season. Watermelon comes here both by road and by river. Watermelon is sold from morning to night every day. I sell watermelons worth Tk 12 to 15 lakh every day.
