458 areca palms on 40 decimals, Tk 3–4 lakh sold in one season
An orchard owner in Char Ruhita, Lakshmipur Sadar sold about Tk 3–4 lakh of areca nuts in one season from 458 palms on 40 decimals; heavy rain cut the yield but prices were higher.
Lakshmipur is the country's largest areca-nut-producing district; in the 2022–23 fiscal year 1 lakh 13 thousand 931 tonnes of areca nut were produced there. According to a report in The Business Standard, an orchard owner in the Char Ruhita area of Sadar upazila has areca nuts on 458 trees on five ganda (40 decimals) of land. That season, because of excessive rain, the trees bore less fruit but prices were higher; he sold about Tk 3–4 lakh worth of areca nuts, and more was still to be sold. Another person from the same area said that the previous year one kaon (16 pon) of areca nuts sold for Tk 1,500–1,600, but this time the price was Tk 1,800–2,000. By the reckoning of a trader at Dalal Bazar, each pon (80 nuts) was selling wholesale for Tk 200–250. There are costs too: one farmer said that teenagers have to be paid Tk 10 to bring down one bunch of areca nuts from a tree, and then there is the cost of stripping, counting and taking them to the market. Even so, the profit stays good. An official of the agriculture department said areca palms start yielding within 3–4 years of planting and bear fruit for at least 40–50 years. Locals say there is demand all year round for areca nut in all three forms: raw, ripe and soaked in water.
Lessons
- 1.In areca a poor yield can come with a higher price; judge the orchard by several years' average income, not one season's yield.
- 2.Take picking, stripping, counting and market transport costs out of the sale price when you count profit.
- 3.With markets for green, ripe and soaked nuts, you can dry or soak the crop and sell later when prices are low.
We published this with the person's permission, without revealing who they are.
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