Winter vegetables beyond reach of ordinary buyers
Monjur Mahmud
Winter vegetables have started to come onto the market much earlier than the season and are selling at prices beyond the reach of common people.Bean, cauliflower, cabbage, tomato, radish and spinach have been available in different city markets for the last couple of weeks but quality of most of these early varieties is not good. Winter vegetables are supposed to arrive in the markets by the end of October. Bean, cauliflower, cabbage and spinach are locally produced but tomato is being smuggled in from neighbouring India, according to the officials of the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM). Bean is selling at Tk 80 a kg, tomato Tk 60, radish Tk 32 and spinach Tk 60 a kg. A pair of tiny cauliflower costs between Tk 50 and Tk 60 while the price of two small cabbages ranges between Tk 40 and Tk 50, traders at different city markets said yesterday. "These early varieties are not meant for the ordinary people, rather for those who can afford to buy these at premium prices," said Abul Bakth, a trader at the Karwan Bazar kitchen market. According to sources, round-the-year seed varieties were smuggled in from India this year but overall quality of those seeds were not good. At the same time, farmers could not 'treat' the soil properly as they lacked the know-how to prepare the land for round-the-year seeds. As a result, production and quality of these vegetables did not come out well, observed officials of the Department of Agricultural Marketing. In some cases, farmers are harvesting some of the 'immature' winter vegetables of local varieties to get premium prices for those. "It is too early for the seasonal vegetables to be on the market and it will take at least two more weeks to get good quality seasonal vegetables," said an official of the Agriculture Marketing. Indian tomato is plentiful in almost all the city markets. "It will take about a month to have locally produced green tomato on the market," he observed. There is always a good demand for winter vegetables during Ramadan and traders do good businesss. "We are having a bit of a problem as the quality of winter vegetables is not good enough to sell [those] at a premium," said Forkan Mollah, a trader at the city's Mirpur kitchen market.
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