B'baria sweetmeat industry on verge of extinction
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Our Correspondent
BRAHMANBARIA, October 24, sweetmeat industry is on the verge of extinction in the district as the prices of raw materials have increased manifold and gone beyond the artisans' buying capacity.
They produced sweetmeat items like Chhanamukhi, Rossmalai, Rajbhog, Mohonbhog, Sponj, Khir, Monda, Amirhi, Kalojam, Shahijilipi, Jilipi, Dadhi, Matha etc. These items have a great demand in the market. Everyday hundreds of kilograms of sweetmeat are selling and going to Dhaka, Chittagong, Habigonj, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Narsingdi as well as other districts of the country. The sweetmeat is also sent to India, KSA, the UK, the USA, UAE, Singapure, Malaysia. B'baria sweetmeat has great popularity at home and abroad. But artisans of sweetmeat industry cannot run their business properly due to price hike of raw materials. Production cost has become higher than the selling price. At present, the prices of sugar, edible oil, milk are increasing day by day.
Talking to this correspondent some artisans of New Cinema Road of Brahmanbaria town, who are engaged in their ancestral profession, said, earlier their profession was a lucrative and profitable one. But now the local artisans have been passing their days in abject poverty.
Of the sweetmeat items sellers of the district, Bholagiri Mistanna Bhandar, Adarsha Matri Bhandar, Bhogwati Mistanna Bhandar, Loknath Misti Ghar etc. are still running their traditional business somehow. But most artisans find it difficult to continue and are switching over to other professions.
Conscious local citizens are of the opinion that necessary measures should be taken immediately by the concerned authorities to save the age-old industry from extinction and to preserve the country's ancestral industry heritage.
BRAHMANBARIA, October 24, sweetmeat industry is on the verge of extinction in the district as the prices of raw materials have increased manifold and gone beyond the artisans' buying capacity.
They produced sweetmeat items like Chhanamukhi, Rossmalai, Rajbhog, Mohonbhog, Sponj, Khir, Monda, Amirhi, Kalojam, Shahijilipi, Jilipi, Dadhi, Matha etc. These items have a great demand in the market. Everyday hundreds of kilograms of sweetmeat are selling and going to Dhaka, Chittagong, Habigonj, Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Narsingdi as well as other districts of the country. The sweetmeat is also sent to India, KSA, the UK, the USA, UAE, Singapure, Malaysia. B'baria sweetmeat has great popularity at home and abroad. But artisans of sweetmeat industry cannot run their business properly due to price hike of raw materials. Production cost has become higher than the selling price. At present, the prices of sugar, edible oil, milk are increasing day by day.
Talking to this correspondent some artisans of New Cinema Road of Brahmanbaria town, who are engaged in their ancestral profession, said, earlier their profession was a lucrative and profitable one. But now the local artisans have been passing their days in abject poverty.
Of the sweetmeat items sellers of the district, Bholagiri Mistanna Bhandar, Adarsha Matri Bhandar, Bhogwati Mistanna Bhandar, Loknath Misti Ghar etc. are still running their traditional business somehow. But most artisans find it difficult to continue and are switching over to other professions.
Conscious local citizens are of the opinion that necessary measures should be taken immediately by the concerned authorities to save the age-old industry from extinction and to preserve the country's ancestral industry heritage.