Date juice extraction going on in full swing in Gopalganj

OUR CORRESPONDENT | Published: December 10, 2025 22:31:36

GOPALGANJ Dec, 10: Extraction of date palm sap (juice) is going on in full swing in different parts of the district with the advent of winter.
Date juice collection has begun at the beginning of winter and will continue until the end of the season.
During the winter season, date juice is widely enjoyed as a very much delicious drink all over the country, especially in the rural Bangla. Winter brings a festive mood among the rural people from the time immemorial. Farmers at the moment are busy harvesting paddy from their fields.
Rural housewives remain engaged in making different yummy cakes mixing newly-harvested rice, date molasses and date juice. Growers produce molasses from date juice. The man who extracts date palm juice is locally called "Gachhi". The Gachhis are now keeping themselves busy scaling date trees to collect juice.
Date juice has a great demand among all sections of people to enjoy the ambiance of winter.
A pitcher of date palm juice is selling at Tk300 to 350 in different local haats and bazars of the district.
Rajon Malitha, 35, a local gachhi of Sonakur village under sadar upazila of the district, said on an average 20 to 25 kgs of molasses can be produced from juice of a date tree, the market price of which is about Tk14,000.
Original date molasses is selling at Tk500 to Tk 550 per kilogram in the local markets.
Rajon also said, "Every winter season I extract date juice from at least 65 to 70 trees. I will get about 1,500 kgs of molasses from those trees in the whole winter season, of which market price is about Tk 8,25,000; but the production cast (burning charge) will be about Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000 along with other costs including daily labour charge Tk 75,000 to Tk 80,000.
Gachhi Rajon said one pitcher of date juice is selling at the rate of Tk 300 to 350 in the current winter season.
On the other hand, Gopalganj district is famous for quality date juice and better quality date molasses.
Rajon added in the past three years, winter has not been so much long in the country. As a result, the growers could not produce sufficient amount of molasses in this season.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), Gopalganj, the district has about 75,000 to 80,000 date trees in its five upazilas where about 150 to 160 tonnes of date molasses are produced annually, of which market size is Tk 80 million (Tk 8 crore). Per kg molasses (of better quality) is selling at Tk 500 to 550 whereas juice is extracted from 1,100 to 1,200 date trees in the district, sources said.
Adhir Ray (60), a date molasses trader of Gopalganj Natum Bazar, said quality date molasses is not available in the markets but price of original date molasses is high.
Besides, many poor extractors did not get the actual price for their produce as the markets are being controlled by a number of middlemen, trader Adhir said.