Home ›› 23 Dec 2021 ›› Nation
The producers of hand-made muri or puffed rice in ten villages of Nalchhiti of Jhalakati are facing a tough time as machine-made puffed rice has flooded the market.
Ten villages – Rajakhali, Dapdapia, Timirkathi, Bharatkathi, Jurkathi, Goalkathi, Charadi, Bakharkathi, Rabnahat and Kumarkhali – in Dapdapia union of Nalchhiti is known as handmade puffed rice manufacturing zone as several hundred families in the villages make puffed rice with organic coarse rise for generations.
Advent of machines in this cottage food industry brought some ease for the producers as it reduces workforce and costing but it left many workers unemployed. Besides, unhealthy for the toxic substances such as urea is used in machine-made puffed rice to give the puffed rise a lucrative look, said Yousuf Ali Hawladar, a local wholesale trader of puffed rice.
He said the comparative low production cost popularised the machine-made puffed rice among both producers and consumers, he added.
Absence any proper marketing channel on the part of handmade puffed rice makers also ensured dominance of machine-made puffed rice in the market, he said.
For a large price-gap, handmade puffed rice-makers are forced to ask for a bare minimum price for their products to sustain in the market, he said.
During a recent visit to the area, residents of these villages and their family members are seen busy making handmade puffed rice.
The villagers pass a busy time during the winter season and Ramadan month as it is the peak time when demand for puffed rice increases across the country, said Md Gias Uddin Khan, a wholesaler.
He added that he and other wholesalers buy puffed rice from these villagers and distribute those to different districts across the country, including Dhaka, Bairshal, Chattogram, Faridpur, Chandpur, Noakhali, Kawkhali, Patuakhali, Mirzaganj, Mahipur, Kuakata, Gopalganj after meeting the demand of the southern region.
The villagers said there are two groups of puffed rice-makers. One group is relatively solvent and they buy a large volume of rice, process it as puffed rice and enjoy a direct profit and the other group are relatively underprivileged. They people either borrow from different sources to invest in making puffed rice. Traditional muri producers prefer three varieties of rice, Nakhuchi, Bauri, Nalti, to make muri, which they collect from different areas, including India.
“First, we fry rice and sand separately in mud pots before pouring the fried rice into the hot sand,” said Moslem Hawladar. One muri-maker can fry 50 kilogrammes of rice and process 42 to 43 kgs of muri. “We sell a kg of muri for Tk 75 wholesale and Tk 85 retail,” he said, adding that over a hundred maunds of muri get sold from these villages every day.
“Each muri-maker can make a profit of Tk 700 to Tk 800 from 100 kgs of puffed rice. If we can directly buy paddy and make puffed rice from it and sell it to traders in the municipal towns, the profit could be doubled, said Monowara Begum, adding that she earns around Tk 400 from one sack of muri.
She further said that over 300 maunds of handmade muri are being distributed across the country from these villages every day, where the wholesale price for each kg of muri is around Tk 70.
Quoting several handmade muri makers, chairman of Dapdapia union Sohrab Hossain Babul told The Business Post that most of these makers are marginalised underprivileged people working hard to earn their livelihood. As their survival has been threatened by the growing number of commercial puffed rice producing businesses, he said the government should take measures to help these people.
He also said that the government should include this age-old craft under the Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC). The makers can get the incentives and loans the organisation provides to traditional craftsmen.
Md Shafaul Karim, deputy manager (acting) of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), said that they already have a loan package that should equip these muri makers. “If they come to us, we will surely help them,” he said. “We will work to preserve this tradition. We will cooperate with the traders in different ways, including giving them soft loans,” said Deputy Commissioner of Jhalakati, Md Johar Ali.
