Various kitchen markets of Dinajpur including the Gabura Bazar are flooded with the Summer Tomatoes. Already Tomatoes amounting Tk 200 crores were sold in the Gabura Bazar. Wholesale tomato traders in this market informed tomatoes amounting Tk 100 crore more are expected to be harvested from the fields.
It is learnt, the season of Tomato is Bangladesh usually ends at the end of February. But, even during the last week of May, the fields of Dinajpur are still filled with ripened, juicy tomatoes. This special Summer variety of tomatoes can be cultivated and harvested from March to June.
Gabura Bazar situated beside Dinajpur-Chirir Bandar road is the largest Tomato market in the district. Farmers from various surrounding villages arrived here with tomatoes to sell. Wholesale tomato traders purchased the tomatoes from this market and sent those to various places in the country including Dhaka and Chittagong.
Ariful Islam, leaseholder of Gabura Bazar informed, tomatoes amounting Tk two to two and a half crores are sold in the market daily. From last March 15 to May 10, tomatoes amounting to more than Tk 200 were sold in the market daily. The temporary wholesale stores of Tomatoes are seen to spread nearly a half kilometre of areas from the bank of Gorveswari River to the Mastan Bazar. More than 100 wholesale tomato traders arrived in this market to purchase tomatoes here.
Varieties of Tomatoes including Bipul Plus, Provensiv, Roma VF. Mintu Super, Ansal and Rani Shakti are available in the market. Tomato farmers informed, though the production of tomatoes was satisfactory this year, the price of Tomatoes is not satisfactory, rather very low. During the last Winter and the Spring, the price of per maund (40 kgs) of tomato was Tk 400 to 500 and now it is also being sold at Tk 10 to 12 per kilogramme. Tomato farmers of the district have demanded the government to build a cold storage for storing tomatoes in the district so that farmers are benefitted.
Afzal Hossain, Deputy Director of the Agriculture Extension Department of Dinajpur informed the higher authorities have been informed about the construction of a cold storage in the district to preserve tomatoes.
