Taking advantage of a rise in demand due to a blistering heatwave in the month of Ramadan, retailers in the capital are selling green coconuts at prices four times higher than wholesalers.
Quick visits to Shahbag, Karwan Bazar, Mohakhali, Farmgate and other local markets in Dhaka city on Saturday revealed that at the initial stage, wholesalers collect green coconuts at Tk 12-16 each based on their size. Wholesalers then supply them at Tk 22-25 a coconut to retailers.
However, retailers sell them at a much higher price to consumers -- at Tk 80 to Tk 120 each -- in different areas of the capital.
Many wholesalers told The Business Post that they sold green coconuts to retailers at a reasonable price. However, it did not matter to them whether retailers sold those coconuts at higher or lower prices later.
Mohammed Shoikot, a wholesaler at Karwan Bazar, regularly collects green coconuts from farmers and is involved with this profession for about 15 years.
“Every day farmers bring coconuts at Karwan Bazar and I collect them as per my demand from them,” said Mohammed Shoikot.
“Today I collected 300 green coconuts directly from farmers at a price of Tk 16 each on average. I will supply them to retailers at different places in Dhaka at Tk 25 per piece,” he added.
Another wholesaler Delowar Islam said he bought green coconuts based on their size at reasonable prices, costing from Tk 15 to Tk 20 each, from farmers.
“We sell green coconuts to retailers for a low profit. But they sell those at Tk 80 to even Tk 120 per piece,” he said.
“Most of the green coconuts come from Barisal, Noakhali, Pirojpur, Barguna, Chattogram and Cumilla. But the demand for green coconuts of Barisal and Noakhali is higher than those of other districts,” Delowar added.
Anowar-ul-Islam, a farmer in Barisal, said he sold each coconut for Tk 12 to Tk 16 to wholesalers, which was quite a low price, according to him.
“We have no option of selling coconuts at a higher price. Wholesalers don’t want to pay more than this. So, we are forced to sell at this price,” he added.
Kabir Ahmed, a retailer, collects green coconuts from Karwan Bazar and sells at a high price at Farmgate at Tk 80 to Tk 120 based on their size.
He claims that he has to pay the wholesale trader Tk 50-60 for each coconut. Then he has to pay a toll for his business and needs to rent a van every day. After all this expenditure, he also has to bear his family expenses by doing this business.
Green coconuts were seen to be sold at Tk 60 to Tk 70 in Nabisco, Tejkunipara and Tibet intersection areas.
Retailer Mohammed Ferozullah collects 100 green coconuts every day from Uttara’s Abdullahpur and sells at Mohakhali. His business was doing well because of extreme heat and Ramadan, he said.
Ferozullah admitted to selling coconuts at a little higher price as the demand is high now. He currently sells green coconuts at Tk 80 to Tk 100 per piece based on size.
“I have to maintain this price range, keeping a balance with other sellers, as I will not be allowed to do business here if I break this rule,” the retailer added.
Sazzad-ul-Islam, a consumer at Shahbag, said, “My mother is admitted at the Birdem Hospital and the doctor suggested coconut water for her. But the price of green coconuts is very high and the sellers are demanding Tk 110 for these small coconuts,” he said pointing at a pile of green coconuts.
“This is one kind of extortion and they (sellers) are making their pockets heavy by cheating people,” Sazzad added.
