Baburhat abuzz with buyers ahead of Eid

Baburhat Market at Shekherchar in Narsingdi, one of the main hubs of hand-loom clothes in the country, has seen an increased flow of buyers ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Shekherchar-Baburhat Banik Samity President Md Gias Uddin said the market, situated beside the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, some 40-km north-east of Dhaka, has become a popular destination for wholesale traders and buyers due to the availability of a wide range of home-grown tant and easy access from major cities of the country.

There are about 5,000 shops in the market which are operated from Thursday to Sunday.

Over Tk 200 crore is being traded in the market every week.

Buyers from various parts of the country are already thronging the market to buy sari and lungi for zakaat.

Over the years, Narsingdi has become home to a number of garments factories producing local apparel. All those major companies have showrooms in Baburhat. Besides, weavers from Rajshahi, Pabna, Sirajganj and other parts of the country also bring their clothes to Baburhat.

When visited the market Wednesday, the traders were found stocking up local clothes such as saris, lungis, three-pieces, shirt pieces, punjabi clothes, traditional cotton towels and various fabrics which are being brought from across the country.

According to the source of Bazaar Banik Samity, the sale exceeded Tk thousand crore during the first and second weeks of the Ramadan.

During the beginning of the Ramadan, wholesalers from different parts of the country purchased the items. Though Thursday, Friday and Saturday are markets days here, all seven days of the weeks got jubilant with the business activities of sellers and buyers.

Buyers and sellers have expressed satisfaction that the sales have improved after the Corona situation.

Helal Uddin, a cloth merchant in Dhaka, said that only in this market all kinds of local cloths are available at wholesale prices. However, the price of clothes is higher this year.

Moniruzzaman, a cloth merchant from Ulipur in Kurigram, said he always came to the market to buy clothes at wholesale prices.

Wholesaler Satya Ranjan Das said the price of all kinds of cloth has gone up a bit due to the increase in the price of yarn.

Amir Hossain, another seller said every year on Eid, new designs are made with the quality of all kinds of clothes. Although the retail market has not started selling in full swing, the sellers are already coming to buy clothes. In the future, trade may increase further.

Md Moniruzzaman Bhuiyan, general secretary of Shekherchar-Baburhat Merchant Association, said traders expect the company to turn around after satisfactory trade losses this year as the situation in Corona has improved. Security has been beefed up at the market, including the installation of 48 CCTV cameras around Eid shopping.

The market is open for about four days a week from Friday to Sunday. Generally, clothes worth one and a half to two thousand crores are sold in this market every year around Eid. Traders are hopeful that it will increase further this year.