Visitors flock to Dhaka trade fair

The Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF-2018) saw a large number of visitors on Friday, a public holiday, as traders lured them with lucrative offers, gifts, raffle draw and wide range of discounts.
The government has extended the duration of the month-long trade fair by four more days till February 04 (Sunday) following a request made by the traders to get more business and export orders.
As the fair being held at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city is coming to an end, it was thronged with shoppers on the weekly holiday, drawn by clearance sales.
Shahriar Kabir, a product associate of a pharmaceutical company who came to the fair along with his wife and sister-in-law, told the FE that it was possible for them to buy some products here (fair) at lower prices than usual.
His wife Taima Mumu bought a silver ring from an Iranian stall at Tk 1,500 which, she said, would cost around Tk 2,000 in a shopping mall or jewellery shop.
Mr Kabir also bought table mat, rug, plastic and ceramic utensils and frying pan at discount for household use.
Bindu Acharya, a university student, bought a large box containing different types of biscuits at Tk 500 with 15 per cent discount from the stall of Nabisco Biscuit & Bread Factory Ltd.
Ice-cream lovers flocked to the premium mini pavilion-20 where local brand Igloo was serving different types of ice-creams to its customers.
Apart from regular ones, Igloo has introduced three new flavours including strawberry cheesecake, French vanilla and doi (sweet curd) at the trade fair.
Shoppers also crowded an Indian pavilion, one of the foreign pavilions out of 17 at the DITF-2018, to buy mostly Kashmiri shawls.
Md Mustafa bought a shawl at Tk 3,100 for his mother, living in Chittagong, from the pavilion which he described as a quite reasonable price comparing to the quality of the product.
A sales representative of Shatranji Bangladesh, a Rangpur-based carpet and rug manufacturer, told the FE that their business this year was better than that of last two years.
The company was drawing shoppers with clearance sale for last two days which will continue until the closing day, he added.
This correspondent saw a buying frenzy at several cloth-stores at the fair as they offered 40 per cent to 60 per cent discount on their products such as shirt, blazer, complete suit, salwar kameez, and three-pieces.
According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), a total of 589 stalls and pavilions including 64 premium pavilions, 27 foreign pavilions and eight mini foreign pavilions and 24 food stalls have been set up at the fair venue.
Apart from local companies, a total of 17 foreign countries including India, Bhutan, Pakistan, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Nepal, Japan, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates are taking part in the fair this year.

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