With the huge sized mangoes named 'Kumra Jali', Hanif of Durgapur was waiting at Baneswarhat for customers. Many inquisitive people were seen crowding in front of his van to watch such large sized mangoes but no one asked for the price.
Another mango farmer Afaz Ali was waiting with the Fazli variety of mango. He informed, there are more than 1,000 maunds of mangoes still in his orchard to be plucked and sold. But, the Corona and the lockdown have lost all hopes of earning any profit; rather he is thinking not to pluck further mangoes from his orchard since there is no customer of mangoes and the price is often so low that that even does not cover the plucking and the transport cost.
Mango orchard owners informed the Langra variety of mango is nearing end and now Amrapali and Fazli mangoes are being ripened. Ashina, Bari-4 and Kua Pahari varieties of mangoes will be ripened and ready to pluck within next one to two weeks and the mango cultivators have no idea how to sell those mangoes during the countrywide lockdown and the Eid-holiday.
They further informed, more than 35 percent of the total mangoes including the Fazli, Amrapali, Ashina are still on the trees of the district. They are extremely worried about the stock of mangoes on the trees. There is no preservation facility or cold storage of mangoes in the district or elsewhere in the country. Though mango trains and couriers are carrying mangoes to Dhaka and other places of the country, the wholesale mango traders from those areas are failing to arrive in Rajshahi to bargain and purchase mangoes this year.
Chandan Kumar Paul of Puthia has been sending mangoes to various places of the country including in Dhaka for the last three-year. During previous years he sent hundreds of maunds of mangoes outside Rajshahi but this year, there was less number of orders from the wholesale mango traders in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet. He added, there was a fall in the arrival of wholesale mango traders this year. He was anxious with the purchased mangoes still on the trees.
Alim Uddin, Chief Scientific Officer of Rajshahi Fruit Research Centre informed that there are 35 percent of total mangoes produced on the trees in the district. Many mangoes are ripening on the trees. Farmers are in a fix for the lockdown. They know, no customer will be able to arrive at the market to purchase mango during the lockdown. As a result, farmers are thinking of plucking mangoes after the lockdown but in that case, a huge quantity of mangoes will get ripened and simply fall and perish. Though mangoes are being transported through couriers, only a very small amount of those are being sent.
The same is the situation for sending mangoes through the train. Only the traders at Rajshahi city and in Chapainwabganj town would be able to send their mangoes through train.
The wholesale traders from Dhaka and other places are not purchasing mangoes now that is why the mango farmers and growers are in an uncertain situation with their mangoes.
