City cattle markets start buzzing with activity

The sale of the sacrificial animals finally gathered pace Wednesday as buyers, braving frequent spells of rains, thronged the capital's cattle markets to book their desired cattle-head.
After days of sluggish trend, the cattle traders got something to cherish thanks to the growing influx of market-bound people with just one day to go before observing the Eid-ul-Azha, which is also known as the feast of sacrifice among the Muslims.
Traders, market operators and customers, however, identified a host of factors behind the sluggishness. They include buyers' market-observation attitudes, over-pricing and supply, traders' wait-and-see policy to have a good profit, frequent spells of late monsoon rain and people's speculation over lesser supply of cattle items following India's strict border policy.
The indigenous species are being the most-sought-after sacrificial animals, buyers and sellers said.
Although traders brought the animals from various corners of the country, Australia and neighbouring India and Nepal into the city's 19 markets few days earlier, the number of buyers increase Wednesday, adding impetus to the trade.
The rush of buyers also brought some sort of hope for many of the traders about recouping the losses they incurred the previous Eid-ul-Azha as most of their animals remained unsold during the last festival.
On a visit to the city's lone permanent Gabtoli Haat (market) and temporary haats at Lalbagh Beribadh, Aftab Nagar and Kamalapur, the FE correspondent found lines of sold-out cattle-heads in front of each Hasil (a local form of toll) counter, which was not seen in the previous days.
Talking to the FE, Mohammad Emran, a hasil counterman at Kamalapur Cattle Market, expressed his satisfaction over customer turnout amid rainfalls, saying that gathering gets greater as day progresses.
He said more than 500 cows, oxen and goats were sold over the last seven hours till 1:00pm, bringing some sorts of relief to both traders and market leaseholders.
Cattle traders at those markets were seen engaged in price-related bargaining with the buyers, giving a new lease of life to the cattle trading.
Abu Taher Khan, who brought 19 animals from Kushtia to Aftabnagar Market, said he managed to sell three bullocks in the morning.
"The presence of buyers would have been much higher if there had not been rain," he said.
Another trader, Siraj Miah, from Gaibandha district said he decided to sell all 12 animals he brought at a lesser profit margin because of growing inflow of cattle-laden vehicles.
"I don't want to go through the bitterness that I experienced last year in the form of taking the unsold animals back home, which cost me high," he said.
Echoing identical sentiments, trader Kamal Hossain said many traders like him would wait for Thursday, the last day before the Eid, to see whether the price goes up or not.
"So, we can witness massive rush of sale tomorrow," he said, adding that many traders brought increased numbers of cows, bullocks, buffalos and goats as they had predicted a less influx of Indian cows this year following the border ban by India.
"It's the media who caused panic among traders and buyers about the supply shortage."
Many buyers were found visiting cattle markets with their family members and children were also seen taking selfie with sacrificial animals.
Iron-rod trader Shahriar Hossain Suman, who bought a large sized bullock at Tk 0.12 million at Gabtoli Cattle Haat, said the traders had sought much higher price, which discourages the buyers to offer any further price.
"But you (the buyers) need to do well in bargaining to have an animal within the budget. The trader demanded Tk 0.19 million for the oxen that I bought," he added.
"The prices are little up than that of the previous year. But it might go down slightly tomorrow (Thursday) as the supply of cattle-heads continues to grow," he said.
Leaseholder of Gabtoli Cattle Haat Lutfar Rahman said that they have been receiving increased number of buyers with the passage of time at this peak hour.
"Massive rush-hour sale would start tonight(Wednesday)," he added.
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