Bangladesh : Rice traders in Naogaon facing huge loss
In Naogaon, Bangladesh’s largest rice-producing district, unstable conditions have halted transactions worth Tk 150-200 crore in the past week. Paddy and rice trading, vital to the local economy, has been disrupted due to curfews, banking service closures, and transportation issues, with daily trade losses estimated at Tk 20-25 crore.
Paddy and rice traders have been deprived of trading worth Tk 150-200 crore in Naogaon, the largest rice producing district in the country, due to the unstable situation in the last one week.
They have suffered huge losses as paddy-rice worth Tk 20-25 crore changes hands daily in Naogaon, but the unstable situation has halted the trading in the northern district.
Mill owners said they have not received money from the businessmen of the country’s big markets due to the unstable situation and lack of banking services in the last one week. They have also suffered due to transportation problems.
However, they said some amount of rice has been sent to Dhaka since the troubled situation in the country is fairly good since Wednesday morning.
Naogaon has the largest wholesale market for paddy and rice in the northern part of the country. Alupatti rice market in the district town was bustling every day of the week. But now the picture is completely opposite. Most of the rice mills in the wholesale market remained closed till Tuesday night. Although the rice stalls were open on Wednesday morning, they were spending idle time as there were no buyers. The situation is the same in the municipal small rice market.
Bangladesh Auto-Rice Mill Coordination Parishad Joint General Secretary Toufiqur Rahman said despite the curfew, rice was bought and sold in the market. But there has been a lot of suffering due to the closure of banking services amid the unusual situation in the country. Although there were many orders for rice, the grain could not be sent to different parts of the country because the businessmen could not pay due to bank closure.
He also said paddy and rice worth Tk 20-25 crore are bought and sold in the district every day. Traders have been deprived of transactions worth Tk 150-200 crore in the last one week. Bank transactions were done on Wednesday but there is no end to the irony. Money could not be withdrawn due to lack of internet services.
Azmat Ali, a worker of Alupatti market, said, “We are poor people. I work as a day labourer. I have no work for several days. Shops were closed. We suffered a lot.”
Bablu Sardar, a small rice trader, said a lot of money has been spent on payment of salaries of the workers and house rent in these few days. “As the bank was closed, I could not pay the money to the creditors.”
Mehdi Hasan, the owner of M/s Omar Rice Mill in Alupatti market, said, “There was no traffic on the road. Paddy-rice was not sold. I didn’t get the money for what I sold earlier. Businessmen of Dhaka and Chittagong could not pay money because the banks were closed. Along with that, the debt burden of all small and big traders has increased. If it continues like this, there will be no option for us.”
Uttam Sarkar, general secretary of Naogaon Municipal Small Rice Traders Association, said due to the curfew, the rice market was devoid of buyers, but the situation was the same even though it opened on Wednesday morning. If this continues, traders will not have any way, he said.
There are 102 automatic and 1,100 husking rice mills in Naogaon district. On an average, 100-200 truckloads of rice are supplied to different parts of the country every day from this district.
Source Link : https://bangladeshpost.net/posts/rice-traders-in-naogaon-facing-huge-loss-142076
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