Online cattle sale jumps 1000pc this Eid ul-Azha

The sale of online cattle saw a sharp rise of more than 1000 per cent during this Eid ul-Azha compared to that a year ago.

According to the Department of Livestock, 3,87,579 sacrificial animals worth over Tk 2,735 crore were sold on 1,768 virtual platforms as of Tuesday.

Of these, cows and buffalos were 2, 96,710 while goats and sheep were 90,869.

Last year, 34,430 sacrificial animals worth over Tk 205 crore were sold on the digital platform listed under the livestock department.

Of them, cows and buffalos accounted for 25,394 while goats and sheep 9,036.

Thanks to the government initiatives to encourage citizens to buy sacrificial animals on digital platforms rather than going in-person to cattle markets to curve the Covid-19 upsurge.

This year the online sale has gone up by 1026 per cent on cattle heads and 1034 per cent on monetary amount than that in the last year’s figure.

Rawnak Mahmud, secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, told The Business Post, “We targeted uploading 25 per cent of total sacrificial animals, however, we could make it around 17 to 18 per cent numbering 26,681 cattle. We are happy with the achievement.”

This year 1 crore and 19 lakh cattle were ready for sacrifice during the Eid ul-Azha while around 91 lakh sold, he said, adding that the online sale will be nearly 4 lakh since the data of other platforms not listed under the department has not been accumulated.

As the physical market for cattle sale this year was less than a week, the online sale had been a blessing for many farmers – big and small.

Badal Mia, owner of Bhai Bhai Dairy and Meat Farm in Churkhai Bazar of Mymensingh Sadar Upazila, said he made an online display of 35 cows as sacrificial animals. Of these, he managed to sell six online while 21 were directly from his farm.

“I failed to sell eight cows. I hope to sell them in near future,” he said.

Muhammad Abdul Wahed Tomal, general secretary, e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh, said, “From our experience, we witnessed that many farmers failed to make a sale online while a lot of customers were unable to purchase as they struggled to make a choice.”

“In future, we want to approach in a planned manner and develop a system where we can sell cattle round the year under the digital platform.”