Home ›› 28 Nov 2021 ›› Nation
The curd of Gournadi upazila – popularly known as Gournadir Doi – is produced only by a local Ghosh clan at a neighbourhood of traditional sweet-makers in the Barishal district, and this delicacy has won the hearts of consumers from both home and abroad.
Every day, hundreds of maunds of curd are shipped from Gournadi to Dhaka, Barishal, Chattogram, Khulna, Dinajpur, Sylhet and other places.
Gournadi’s sweetmeat also has a stellar reputation abroad. Bangladeshi expatriates from the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Europe, America and other countries take the sweetmeat from Bangladesh to their dear ones, colleagues and friends during home visits.
In America, a young man named Rana Debnath – a resident of Gournadi – has created an organisation called Gournadi Confectionery. The confectionery has already gained a good reputation throughout the United States.
He was once an employee of a sweet shop in Gournadi. He went to America in the 90’s after winning the American DV lottery.
Around a thousand workers are involved in making yoghurt in Gournadi. Besides, thousands of people from the upazila and its surrounding areas are involved in selling and supplying milk.
Although curds and sweets are made in different factories of Gournadi, good quality sweets are made at Gournadi town and Gaila market.
Sachin Ghosh and Balaram Ghosh have been running the curd and sweet business at Gournadi town for years. Both of them have been awarded as the best taxpayers of Barishal district. The duo started making curd around 55 years ago in the area.
Even before that, their grandfather used to make sweetmeat in Gournadi, and marketed his delicious items across the country. According to him, his business has been going on for at least 75 years.
At present, curd and sweets are being made in about 25 Ghosh factories in different hat-bazars in the area, including six in Gournadi town, five in Torkey port, four in Gournadi bus stand and three in Batajore.
Besides, delicious curd and sweets are being made in three shops of Gaila Bazar of Agailjhara.
Swapan Kumar Das, owner of Dilip Kumar Confectionery at Gournadi bus stand, said he could not say exactly when curd and sweets were introduced commercially in Gournadi. However, he inherited the sweets business from his father Dilip Kumar Das.
He heard from his grandfather the fame of Gournadi’s curd-sweet spans more than 250 years. Raj Vallabh Ghosh and Narayan Ghosh founded the dadhi-sweets business in Gournadir.
Later, many including Sachin Ghosh, Sushil Ghosh and Noni Ghosh took the helm of this business. Taking inspiration, many people later expanded this business of curd and sweets.
Sridam Ghosh, one of the sweetmeat producers and wholesale traders, said his father was one of the pioneers of the Gournadi brand.
Around 200 maunds (one maund is 37 kilogrammes) of milk ends up generating about 100 maunds of yoghurt. The production doubles during different festivals.
Krishna Ghosh, owner of Loknath Sweetmeat Bhandar, said he makes yoghurt with 30 maunds of milk every day. The milk is usually heated to half its volume before the butter is extracted. Afterwards, the liquid is cooled, placed in a clay pot and covered with a sack until curd forms in about a day.
Curd producer Saikat Das said he buys milk for Tk 40 – Tk 50 per kilogramme from local traders in Ramjanpur, Bakchar, Muladi, Barthi and Ramchar areas, and sells the yoghurt for Tk 120 per kilogramme.
Palash Ghosh, general secretary of Gournadi Sweetmeat Producers Association, said they supply yoghurt worth Tk 1.5 to Tk 2 crore to local markets in Barishal, Faridpur and Dhaka every month.
Bishu Ghosh, president of Barishal Sweets Producers’ Association, said 1,000 workers are involved in the business, and they are trying to survive this winter in hopes of a better future.
