About 12000 litres of milk sold in Bagmara Bazar of Cumilla everyday

CUMILLA, Dec 21: About 12000 litres of cow milk are sold at Bagmara Bazar of Lalmai Upazila in Cumilla district every morning. Farmers come from the nearby areas with their cow milk and they are happy with their sales proceed.

According to the sources, about two thousand farmers of five unions including Perul North, Perul South, Volain North-South and Bagmara of the upazila rear milche cows. They produce about 12,000 litres of milk per day. Many large farmers sell milk directly to various establishments in Cumilla and Laksam. Medium and small farmers bring milk to Bagmara market and sell to wholesalers. From here 15-20 wholesalers collect milk.

Visiting the market one morning, it was seen that the farmers are coming to the market with milk by bicycles, rickshaws and CNG autorickshaw. Wholesalers are buying milk and pouring it into drums. The sweet smell of milk is spreading in the air. Labourers are lifting the drums in the pickup van. Farmers got the price at Tk 40 per litre. Most of the milk comes from villages around Silonia, Hajatia and Bagmara Bazar in Lalmai upazila.

Moksed Mia of Amua village in the upazila said, "I have come to the market to sell 25 litres of milk. I am happy to sell milk for cash. However, sometimes the price of milk goes down in the market. Then it is to be sold at Tk 30 per litre.

Akhter Hossain of Meherkul Daulatpur village, the wholesale milk buyer of this market, said, "I have been collecting milk from this market for the last eight years. Now I have collected milk at the rate of 40 taka per litre". He will sell at Tk 48 per litre. He collects 1200 to 1300 litres of milk per day. In this market, 15-16 such wholesalers collect milk.

Abdul Aziz, director of Aziz Dairy Farm in Silonia village and general secretary of the District Dairy Owners Association, said there has been a milk market in Bagmara Bazaar for decades. We also used to sell milk here at first. Now we supply ourselves directly to Cumilla. I use the rest to make yogurt and sweets. Besides, there are wholesale markets for milk in Suagazi, Chawkbazar and Burichang markets of Cumilla.

The demand for cow's milk is less in winter and monsoon. At that time the price goes down. Farmers will benefit if new markets for milk are also created. I have talked about this with the district animal resource officers, he said

District Animal Resources Officer Dr. Nazrul Islam said, "We have informed the authorities about milk collection and storage at various points." Hopefully we can stand by the farmers through a project".

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