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The Boithakata floating market on the Belua river in Pirojpur has transformed into a major centre for wholesalers as many people directly depend on the century-old market as their primary means of trade.
Considered the biggest floating market in the southern part of the country, it has connected Nazirpur and Nesarabad upazilas under Pirojpur district and Barishal’s Banaripara upazila and it is spread around one kilometre of the river under Nazirpur upazila.
It sits twice a week: on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
The people of the three upazilas directly rely on the market for selling their goods to wholesalers. They bring their produce in boats or engine-run trawlers.
Local businessmen also bring products to the market from other parts of the country. People from distant areas also come to the market to buy seasonal goods.
Though the floating market remains active throughout the year, it is more crowded during the winter season when the vegetables produced in the marshland and the saplings of vegetable plants grown on floating seedbeds become available.
Rice, puffed rice, coconut, straw, eggs, poultry and other products are also sold there.
Before the sun rises, people with goods loaded in small boats rush to the market. By 11am, they return home after finishing their trading activity.
None can exactly say when the market was established. But locals guess the age of the market is not less than a century.
“I have come to the market from my childhood,” said 70-year-old local farmer Md Abul Kalam Akan, adding his father, as well as grandfather, also used to come to the market to sell goods.
Another septuagenarian Mohammad Younus says the market was established on a small scale initially and has expanded with the passage of time.
Now the market has transformed into a major business centre where products worth more than Tk 30 lakh are sold on every haat day, according to businessmen.
The sales cross Tk 1 crore when watermelon, mango and pumpkin hit the market, said Md Masud Rana, general secretary of the bazar management committee.
After buying products from the market, businessmen transport them to districts such as Barguna, Patuakhali and Barishal.
“Depending on seasons, we buy fruits, including mangoes, guavas, jujubes and watermelons and vegetables such as potatoes and pumpkins from different areas of the country and sell them here,” said Imam Hossain, a wholesaler.
Md Abdur Rashid, a businessman, says they sell locally produced rice in the market as it is the biggest market in the area.
“We can sell all types of products in the market easily,” said Abdul Khaleq, also a businessman.
According to Md Kamal Hossain, a wholesaler, several thousand people, including growers and wholesalers, rely on the market to make a living.
“The market plays the most important role in the economy of our area.”
(TDS)
