Once delicate Khalishpur sweetmeat loses its traditional appeal

JHENIDAH, Jan 20: Once enjoying skyrocketing popularity for delicate taste, sweetmeats of Khalishpur under Maheshpur upazila of Jhenidah have lost their quality for a number of reasons, due mainly to rampant sucking of cream through machines in the area.
Once upon a time sweets of 'Keshto Kaka' used to bring Khalishpur name and fame for their mouth-watering taste and flavour which many  sweets-lovers from both adjoining and distant areas enjoyed with their hearts' content.
In the past, sweetmeats of Khalishpur were supplied to distant places including upazilas of Jhenidah, Jessore, Magura and Rajbari alongside lots of people from remote areas coming here to collect sweetmeats which were delicate in taste.
But now due to a section of unscrupulous local people's doing brisk business of cream sucked from cattle milk through scores of machines which are run widely  here, pure milk is hardly available at Khalishpur area resulting in making of very low-quality sweetmeats from adulterated posset by the sweets traders.
As many as 17 sweetmeat shops - owned by Ananto, Swapon Huzur, Basu Dev, Amal, Sona, Shaymal, Banomali and Sons, Ekubbar, Santosh, Moktarul at Khalishpur new bus stand and Madhob, Al Amin, Alamgir, Haran, Subash, Shachin and Swapon at old bus stand in the area - make around 22-25 maunds of sweets daily on an average and sell them in the bazar to the local customers, sometimes getting orders from them on different occasions including 'Hal Khata' of shopkeepers and observance of national days of the country.
One Minhaj Uddin, a customer at Khalishpur bazar, said that excessive profit-making tendency of the sweetmeat preparers leads to making low-quality sweets devoid of nutrition in the area in all seasons.  
Sweetmeats preparer Shyamal Babu told the FE that they are bound to make low-quality items as local customers prefer buying sweets at cheaper rates without much bothering about their quality.
One Ayub Ali, a cattle-milk grower-cum-supplier from Jugihuda village under the upazila told this correspondent the sweets-makers at Khalishpur prepare sweetmeats of such low-qualities that in case of their sales at Tk. 70-80 per kilogram, they can bring the traders profit, though at present, the item is sold at Tk 110 to 120 a kg locally.
Madhob Kumar-owner at Khalishpur old bus stand, dealing in sweetmeats said "Extensive running of cream-sucking machines in and around Khalishpur bazar is contributing a lot to degradation of sweets here.''
Echoing the same view many other sweet-makers at Khalishpur bazar told The Financial Express that they sought necessary actions on the part of the authorities concerned to stop widespread use of cream-sucking machines in the bazar saving their business from ruination.