Traders and farmers fear that this year cattle markets ahead of Eid-ul-Azha across the country could see a big drop in sale amid coronavirus pandemic and flood.  

The two-pronged onslaughts of coronavirus and flood on the country's economy reduced people's purchasing capacity to almost half.

Many people have already lost their jobs while businesses have plunged sharply.

Under this situation people involved in the sector fear a big drop in sales of sacrificial animals. Last year, people sacrificed over 10 million animals in the country.

Md Azad Mamun, a contractor of Dhaka city, feels sad and frustrated as he responds to his father's question about whether his family could be able to sacrifice an animal for this Eid-Ul-Azha.

His dismay comes with his inability to buy a sacrificial animal for upcoming Eid, as he recently lost most of his contract works due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Mamun is one among thousands of people who have lost their works and businesses due to the pandemic and have become unable to meet basic living costs, making it quite impossible for them to buy a cow or goat for sacrifice.

Add to that flood has mounted miseries of people manifolds. This year the flood destroyed crops and earnings of a large number of people in the northern part of the country who will not be able to sacrifice animals for Eid-ul-Azha.

In addition, people are scared of corona pandemic as a good number of house owners are not allowing tenants to slaughter cows near the vicinity of their houses.    

Politicians and business people who usually sacrifice three to five cows are now going for a single cow as their business has also been hit hard by the pandemic.

Some have also blamed the emergence of online platforms as a tool for digitally selling sacrificial animals this year, because lack of know-how has caused many to miss opportunities to sell their sacrificial animals.

This year, Dhaka North and South City Corporations were allowed to create 14 conventional makeshift cattle markets in the city excluding 10 markets than previous year.  It has encouraged digital platforms to prevent people from getting infected with coronavirus in the markets.

Although the markets were set up in the city, most were seen almost empty as the buyers are not interested to buy cattle from markets. Most buyers are buying cattle from online platforms.

Talking to some cattle traders in the capital, it was found that previous crowds in cattle markets were missing this year, thanks to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Shah Emran, General Secretary of Bangladesh Dairy Farmers' Association (BDFA) told Daily Observer, "With the existing trend in sales, we fear an about 20% to 30% fall in sales compared to the previous year."
This is because of the loss of earnings and health safety issues, they said.

"Out of 70 cows reared for this year, 30 cows have already been sold off and most of those are small as the demand for small ones are high," said Emran, who is also the owner of Swapno Dairy.
Emran also said most of the people are very much interested to buy cows that cost less than 1 lakh taka.

This year many people who usually sacrificed a separate cow every Eid-ul-Azha have turned to share a sacrificial animal with a fellow, colleague, or relatives.

"This year, the collection of rawhides would be around 45% less compared to the previous year as the country is witnessing flood in about 30 districts, while the Covid-19 pandemic is another issue, which cast a shadow on people income," said Bangladesh Tanners' Association (BTA) Chairman Shaheen Ahmed, Managing Director of Anjuman Trading Corporation, told Daily Observer.

"During last year's Eid-ul-Azha, people sacrificed over 10 million animals, which might come down to 6 million or less then that this year," the tanners' platform predicted.