A woman is seen working at a Catechu factory at Gopalpur village under Charghat upazila — FE Photo RAJSHAHI, Mar 11: Several thousand farmers and labourers involved in preparing Catechu in Charghat upazila of the district turned unemployed due to closure of markets and fall in demand of catechu during Corona pandemic, fall in price of the high-quality catechu and the shortages of sufficient raw materials.
According to sources, the production of catechu started in Charghat of Rajshahi long ago. But, the commercial cultivation of catechu first started at Gopalpur village in 1952. Later, it is as cottage industry flourished further with the arrival of Bihari people from India and West Pakistan. The catechu produced here were then sold to various places including Dhaka, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Syedpur, Santahar, Khulna and Thakurgaon.
Most of the catechu industries are set up in Gopalpur and Babupara villages of the upazila.
The raw materials for production of catechu is mainly the branches of Catechu trees which used to grow in fallow lands and jungles. Farmers from Abdulpur, Lalpur, Bagatipara and lokmanpur areas also cultivated catechu trees and used to sell the catechu branches to Charghat bazaar. Though, during the 50s, there were nearly 100 catechu production industries in Charghat, now the number has come down to 10 to 15.
It is learnt, it takes nearly 30-year for maturing of a catechu tree. Due to its long duration to get matured, farmers of Charghat are now being inclined to mango cultivation by abandoning the catechu tree production. As a result, the shortages of raw materials for production of catechu has been prevailing in the upazila for the last three-decades and catechu producers are now being bound to purchase the catechu leaf ( raw materials) from other districts at a high price. Moreover, the price of imported catechu from Indonesia and Malaysia being cheap, local catechu producers often incur loss.
Enamul Haque, owner of a catechu factory at Gopalpur village informed, the catechu producing factories in the village are being closed one after another due to increase in production cost and the shortages of raw materials. Many factory owners are now also facing capital shortages.
As the demand of catechu drops in the country, many of the factory owners are being forced to sell their products in credit. The factory owners are also totally deprived of any government assistance in this connection.
He demands bank loans at a low interest rate to revive this industry and the government's step to discourage the import of catechu. He thanked the State Minister of Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam for raising the problem of the catechu industry owners in Charghat in Parliament and for taking immediate steps to resolve the crisis.
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