City mkts cooling down on rising supplies

Prices of watermelon have started coming down in the city markets thanks to increasing supplies from the growing hubs.
The juicy fruit that is in great demand in the summer was being sold at Tk 60 to Tk 150 per piece depending on size in the city during the last two days against Tk 110-250 per piece at the retail level some ten days back, according to traders at different markets and vendors.
The price might decline further in the days ahead as harvesting started in full swing across the country, traders said.
Officials at the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), however, predicted that the output of the fruit in the current year would surpass that of last year thanks to the good weather conditions for the last three months and expansion of cultivable land.
According to the Cash Crop Wing of the DAE, watermelon has been cultivated on nearly 36,500 hectares of land in the country this financial year (FY'15) against the production target of 1.35 million (13.5 lakh) tonnes.
The production was a record 1.32 million tonnes last fiscal year (FY), the DAE said.
Md Faridul Islam, a fruit vendor at the BDR Gate-1 in the Hazaribagh area told the FE on Saturday that supplies increased significantly at the wholesale level in the last few days and that helped trim down the prices.
He said a big-size 'Patenga Giant' variety was sold at Tk 100-120 per piece in the Sadarghat wholesale market on the day against Tk 160-180 per piece a week back.
The price of a medium-size 'top yield' variety also plunged by Tk 20-30 per piece to the range of Tk 60-80 at the wholesale level, he said.
However, the fruit was being traded at Tk 40 to Tk 120 per piece at the wholesale markets of Sadarghat, Badamtoli, Showarighat, Beribadh and Karwan Bazar in the city.
Hazi Rafiq Uddin, a wholesaler at Beribadh adjacent to Nawabganjbazar in the city said that harvesting started in full swing in the regions of Chittagong, Barisal and Jessore.
More than 80 per cent of watermelon comes from the coastal districts, he said.  
The prices would drop further next week when the produce from Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Naogaon, Natore and Rangamati districts would arrive in the markets, he added.
According to the DAE, Patuakhali, Bhola and Barguna districts are the biggest watermelon-growing areas in the country, jointly covering nearly 82 per cent of the total acreage.
Bangladeshi farmers grow varieties like Patenga Giant, Glory, Top Yield, Champion, World Queen, Empire, Big Tob and Sugar Baby in the country.
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