Setting up more cold storages for mango

Bangladesh produces around 1.5 million tonnes of mangoes with a market value of Tk100 billion every year. However, it is worrying that up to 30 per cent of mangoes produced in the country get wasted before reaching the market in the absence of proper storage and transport facilities. Most of the growers keep waiting for traders to arrive in time to buy their produce. But most of the times, the traders do not turn up on time. Growers cannot sell mango in the market as it becomes ripe. But they do not have access to chilling centre for preserving their mango.

It has, unfortunately, become commonplace in recent years that growers incur losses when they have a bumper mango production. In the absence of a proper marketing mechanism for their produce, growers in general have to sell it at prices even less than their average production cost. In this situation, the authorities concerned should set up more cold storages to preserve mangoes in mango-growing hubs of Bangladesh.

Shahjahan Sirazi,

Malibagh, Dhaka,

mshaju001@gmail.com