Summer fruit growers face double blow

The country's mango, litchi and other summer fruit growers are facing a double blow due to supply disruption during the coronavirus pandemic as well as fall in production.

Low demand following the pandemic and disruption in transportation has put seasonal fruit growers in peril during this peak harvesting season, said insiders.

Mango and litchi growers in Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Pabna, Rangamati, Khagrachari, Bandarban and few other districts have been suffering heavy losses due to lack of orders.

Besides, more than half of their fruits were destroyed as the cyclonic storm Amphan hit Bangladesh on May 20.

Belal Hossain, a mango gardener at Bagha upazila in Rajshahi, said 50 per cent mango on his three hectares of land was damaged by the cyclone last month.

"And now we are not getting customers for the rest of fruits following the pandemic. Transport movement on limited scale is also hampering our trade."

Local traders are offering only Tk 12-15 a kg for Lengra variety of mango, he said, adding that they sold those to Dhaka traders at Tk 45-50 a kg earlier, he added.

"I'm going to incur a loss of minimum Tk 1.2 million due to dull business of mango."

Kansat in Chapai nawabganj, the biggest mango market of the country, also witnessed less mango trade this year.

Mozammel Hoque, a mango trader at Kansat, said this year transaction of mango sale is 20 per cent less than last year.

"The general holidays announced by the government to contain the spread of coronavirus took a toll on the mango economy of the district."

As usual, he said, Kansat buzzes with traders from different districts such as Dhaka, Narayanganj, Sylhet, and Chattogram during the March-May period.

There is hardly any trader now from other districts due to lockdown in many parts of the country, he added.

Lokman Ali Laskar, a litchi gardener at Dashuria of Ishwardi upazila in Pabna district, told the FE that the cyclonic storm Amphan caused severe damage to their litchi gardens last month.

According to him, 80 per cent of premature litchi fell to the ground. "I collected the rest of matured litchi three days back and sold them at local bazar at throwaway price due to lack of seasonal buyers from big cities."

Litchi is usually sold to traders from flowering stage, he said, adding that but this year no trader came from Dhaka or other districts due to the pandemic.

Lokman said transport cost has also gone up by three times which forced them to sell the fruit in local market at lower price.

Litchi gardeners in Dinajpur also faced same trouble.

According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), there are around 9.0 million mango trees across the country.

DAE was expecting 2.6 million tonnes of mango output with 10per cent growth this year.

It had also set a target to get 0.25 million tonnes of litchi. But the target is unlikely to be achieved due to cyclone Amphan.

The DAE data showed that mango orchards on 71,000 hectares of land and litchi gardens on 10,600 hectares of land had been affected by Amphan. Also, 0.3 million farmers incurred Tk 3.2 billion losses in Satkhira, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Pabna and Dinajpur districts.

However, the supply disruption caused a hike in the prices of mangoes and litchis in Dhaka city.

Himsagor, Gopalbhog and Lengra varieties of mangoes were selling at Tk 80-140 a kg at fruit outlets during this peak season.

Litchi was selling at Tk 300-650 per 100 pieces based on its quality. tonmoy.

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