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Blockades, shutdowns depress vegetable prices

Suman Saha
It was over 24 hours, but Md Amin Islam, a dinner from Chapainawabganj, was still sitting on a huge pile of tomatoes at the Kirwan Bazar kitchen market yesterday afternoon.
Islam, who cultivates the winter vegetable on an acre of land, usually hires an entire truck and drives to Dhaka to sell the produce himself.
He gets in around 10 at night with a truck full of seasonal vegetables and by early morning he manages to offload the entire lot to traders at Karwan Bazar and drives back to Chapainawabganj.
But this time it has been different. He got in on Saturday afternoon with 15 tonnes of tomato and until 3:30pm yesterday he managed to sell only half of it. He even dropped the price toTk 28-30 a kg from his usual Tk 35-40, but still it is not helping.
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There was nothing wrong with the quality of this lot; it was simply that the ongoing spell of hartals and blockades prevented the traders from coming to Karwan Bazar, the wholesale hub, with their trucks.
Desperate, he is now approaching passers-by to buy tomatoes off him, in whatever amount they wish. And die reason being, the produce would go off. "As things stand, I am not even thinking of counting any profits from this batch. I just do not want it to go to waste," said an anxious Islam.
But that is not the end of the 28-year old farmer's misfortunes. He harvested the produce nine days ago, right in the middle of die wave of blockades that have swept die country.
Worried diat his labour would go to waste, Islam paid die higher transport fares prevalent during shutdowns or blockades and came to Dhaka. He usually pays Tk 20,0 00-25,000 for carrying 15 tonnes of
goods from Gomastapur Upazila of Ghapai Nawabganj to Dhaka, but this time he had to shell outTk55,000.
At the time of writing, diis trip of Islam's brought himTk 1.75 lakh, way less dian usual.
Islam's story, however, is not an isolated one; many other farmers and traders are on the same boat as him.
Md Afsar Liddin brought around 70 tonnes of radish from Manikganj, but he has managed to sell only one-third of it. Not even a price cut could get the radishes to sell faster. He was selling the vegetable at 11 10-12 a kg yesterday, down from Tk 14-15 a few days ago.
"Who is going to buy it? There's hardly any customer around," said die frustrated trader.
Md Kamal, a trader from Jessore who buys vegetables directly from farmers and brings them to Karwan Bazar to sell in bulk, echoed the same.
Yesterday he was seen selling cabbages for Tk 3-8 apiece, instead of the Tk 15-20 that he typically charges. "I have cut my