Bonik Barta photo There is a high demand of Himsagar
mango from Satkhira in the European market. The country has been exporting the
succulent mango variety to Europe since 2015. Last year 170 tons of mango were
exported from Satkhira.
Encouraged by the success in previous
years, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) set a target to export
300 tons of Himsagar to the United Kingdom, Italy and Sweden in this season.
So far, 50 tons of mango were exported.
According to DAE sources, apart from
Himsagar, there are mango varieties like Langra, Amrapali and Gobindobhog in
Satkhira that can be exported.
“The government
has undertaken a project named ‘Exportable produces’ in order to increase mango
export. Under the project, the mango farmers are provided with higher training,
superior technology, fertilizers, irrigation and insecticides free of cost,” Saiful
Islam, deputy director of Satkhira district DAE, told Bonik Barta.
Besides,
arrangement has been made so that exporters can directly procure mango from the
trained farmers, he added.
Hazrat Ali,
assistant manager of Tasin Enterprise, an export-oriented company based in
Dhaka, said that the demand of Satkhira’s Himsagar mango in European market is
huge. But, it is difficult to procure mango as per the demand. The mango that
destined for Europe must be of top quality.
His company has
procured the mango from the trained farmers and it is exporting to UK and Italy
this year.
Earlier, some
300 mango farmers from Satkhira Sadar, Kolaroa and Debhata upazilas were given
training on producing exportable mango.
One of these
farmers is Saidur Rahman from Satkhira Sadar. He said that he has been
producing export quality mango for last three years with the assistance from
DAE. In this season, he is producing Himsagar mango on 50 decimal land that has
50 trees. Although 8 tons of mango were produced, only 3 tons could be sold to
the exporting companies. He sold the mango at Tk 85,000-90,000 per ton. The
price is better than last year. Last year, each ton sold at Tk 65,000 to 70,000.
