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Baburhat goes frenzy ahead of Eid

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
AS the Eid festival approaches, traders and shoppers were seen closing their deals at Baburhat, one of the largest wholesale clothing markets in the country.
The weekly roadside bazaar of more than 1,200 shops of local clothing items get packed with sellers, distributors, retailers and workers from across the country.
Traders crowd around Baburhat in Narsingdi, 45 kilometres north from Dhaka, during every Ramadan to purchase low-cost clothing items for zakat.
Zakat is the amount of money that every adult and financially able Muslim has to pay to support the poor or needy. It is one of the five basic requirements of Islam.
Affluent Muslims distribute different clothing items as zakat ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Baburhat is not only famous for low-priced saris and lungis, but also for other items such as fabrics and salwar-kameez for women.
It is the peak selling season and it becomes tough to enter the main market from the Dhaka-Sylhet highway through the narrow lanes.
Workers are always there to load and unload clothes to serve businessmen of different parts of the country.
The market sits on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays when weavers from Tangail,
Shyampur, Sirajganj and Kushtia bring different clothing items to sell to shopowners, who then deliver those to other traders across the country.
Wholesalers, locally known as paikar, from Barisal, Khulna, Kushtia, Jessore and the northern districts are the main buyers of the clothing items for zakat.
This year, the prices of saris and lungis are at least 15 percent lower than those last year, as yarn prices marked a fall in the face of declining cotton prices in the global market, said Noor-e-Alam Badal, managing director of Altex Print Sari.
This year, each sari for zakat is priced at Tk 250, while the best ones cost Tk 400 a piece, he said.
The number of customers increased in the last two weeks although some wholesalers completed purchase before the beginning of Ramadan.
“The volume of sales will rise from the next week,” he said.
Mohammad Sabbir Hossain, a wholesaler at Kathgora Bazar in Savar, bought sari, lungi and other items worth Tk 3 lakh from a shop at Baburhat yesterday.
Hossain said Ramadan is the peak season as the demand for zakat clothes rises ahead of Eid.
“I purchase clothing items in bulk from Baburhat as the prices are relatively low here compared to other markets," he said. He also said there was no shortage of cloth-
ing items this year.
Waliur Rahman Mollah, a dyeing worker at a Shyampur-based factory, said shopowners at Baburhat buy grey fabrics in bulk and send those to different dyeing factories for printing and colouring.
The dyeing factories return the printed saris and lungis to the shop-owners to store those in warehouses. For each sari, they charge Tk 130 for printing and Tk 400 for dyeing, he said.
“I will be able to sell products worth Tk 20 lakh in the three market days," said Shahajuddin, owner of Fatema Sandha Sari at Baburhat.
Satya Ranjan Das, a distributor of Amanat Shah Lungi, said the number of customers for lungis is higher this year. Each lungi is
priced between Tk 500 and Tk 700.
Traders transact crores of taka at Baburhat every week, Das said, but he did not disclose the figure of his weekly sales.
“The volume of sales is low this year, but I cannot tell you the reasons. Low prices of paddy in rural areas may be the cause of poor sales," said Delwar Hossain Khoka, owner of Disha Print Sari.
Political leaders used to buy a good number of zakat clothes every year, but this year the turnout of such customers is thin.
He said he has a good stock of lungis and saris. “But it will be difficult to sell all the goods ahead of Eid due to a poor demand this year."
“I will be able to sell 5,000 pieces of saris today. Sales were better last year. We had
made a hefty profit within the 15 days of Ramadan last year, but this year sales reduced by almost half," said Abdul Mazid, owner of Tata Print Sari.
He said the prices of saris range between Tk 300 and Tk 800 a piece at his shop.
“I will be able to sell clothing items worth Tk 30 lakh during three market days,” said Shankar Kumar Das, owner of Pinky Cloth Store. This year, he sells 5,000 pieces of saris a day, which was 10,000 pieces last year ahead of Eid.
Jamsher Mollah, a distributor of ATM Lungi, said stockmarket crash is also one of the major reasons behind poor sales this year.
reefat@thedailystar.net