Meagre marketing woes strawberry growers

RANGPUR, Apr 27 (BSS): Despite impressive production, strawberry growers are unhappy for not getting fair price due to inadequate marketing and preservation facilities of the aristocrat produce in the northern region, farmers, officials and experts said. Harvest of the high-priced delicious and nutrition fruits now continues in full swing with excellent yields in northern Bangladesh and strawberry is being sold at Tk 200 per kg on an average in the local markets. However, the locally produced and imported strawberry is being sold at rates in between Tk 700 and 1,000 per kg in the sophisticated markets and shopping malls in the capital city and other bigger cities, local market sources said. After farming strawberry in limited land area and getting bumper production and fair price repeatedly in recent years, the enthusiastic farmers went to its commercial cultivation at many places this season in the region. Bigger strawberry growers are selling strawberry to the markets and shopping malls in the capital city at their own arrangements to get better prices after, but the small-scale farmers have no alternative to selling the same at throwaway prices in the local markets. Talking to the news agency, local fruits' sellers said that lack of preservation facilities cause damages to strawberry if the same were not sold to the consumers at the earliest possible time after harvest. "A good portion of strawberry is getting rotted at our shops if not sold on the same day of harvest," said a number of fruit sellers at the biggest fruit selling Rangpur Poura market today. Horticulturist Mezbahul Islam of the DAE said that many farmers have cultivated strawberry in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat and Kurigram and other districts on commercial basis this season. A large number of commoners have also cultivated strawberry in their homesteads, roof tops using tubs to have tastes of one of the most nutritious, and flavorful fruits in the region. "But, lack of adequate marketing and preservation facilities and insufficient knowledge of the people about the nutritious fruit have been causing woes to the growers," Mezbahul said. Strawberry expert and Deputy Secretary Mahbubul Alam and Head of Agriculture and Environment of RDRS Bangladesh Dr MG Neogi said that the soil, climate and topographic conditions of the region are suitable for strawberry cultivation. "Expanded strawberry farming could open a new horizon in the rural agriculture if easier marketing and preservation facilities could be ensured at the grassroots as huge quantities of the same are still being imported from abroad," they said.