Cattle sales at Gabtoli Hat enters Eid day

While the country is celebrating the holy Eid-ul-Azha on Sunday, cattle trade at the capital's Gabtoli Hat has been going on even on Eid day.

Many buyers flocked the market since early morning in search of small and medium-sized cows, the price of which skyrocketed on the day before Eid due to heavy demand.

Abdul Majid came to the cattle market from Keraniganj at 6am but still looking for a better deal at 11am.

"I have been visiting different cattle markets in the capital for the last two days but the sellers are pretty rigid with the asking price for small cows. They are asking Tk65,000 for a cow, the size that I bought last year for Tk40,000," he told The Business Standard.

Yesterday, there happen to be a crisis of small-sized cows in the capital's cattle markets.  After the news spread, many traders from the adjacent districts brought small to medium-sized cows to the market last night.

Alamgir Hossain, one such trader from Manikganj, brought ten cows last night at 10pm and sold them all with a profit of Tk50,000.

Similarly, after receiving the news of the high demand for small cows, Suruj Mia from Manikganj bought four cows at Tk2.10 lakh to sell them in the capital. By mid-day, he was able to sell two cows at Tk1.6 lakh.

"I don't think I will make much profit today as the selling price here is quite normal," he said. 

Mohammad Raju from Mirpur bought two cows from the hat this morning. 

He told TBS, "I visited this market twice in the two days but the prices of the cattle were too high. Today I bought two cows - one with Tk90,500 and another with Tk95,000. Cows like these were around Tk1.20 lakh yesterday."

Meanwhile, many were seen buying goats as well. The price of goats today has been reported to be reasonable. 

Mohammad Taher from Mogbazar was seen very happy to buy a bull for Tk3.20 lakh.

He told TBS, "I am very happy to be able to buy this 26-maund bull. Coming here today was a good decision as the price for such cattle was absurdly high yesterday."

Meanwhile, seller Ayub Ali said he had to count loss for letting this bull go at this rate. Even yesterday, someone offered him Tk6 lakh.