Muhammad Ayub Ali :
The Dhaka International Trade Fair (DITF) is becoming more vibrant with just a few days left and drew a huge crowd as many visitors took the opportunity to do shopping and hang out, said the participants.
The 29th edition of DITF is held at Bangabandhu Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Center (BCFEC) in Purbachal despite its distance from Dhaka growing number of visitors is increasing day by day.
DITF participants said that the last time the fair sales increased every year there was a demand for both domestic products as well as foreign products, so the extension of the time is a dire need for us to cover the initial losses.
Director (marketing) of Pran-RFL Group, One of the country’s leading conglomerates, Kamruzzaman Kamal told The New Nation that they are attaining the fair to come closer to the consumers.
The trade fair time limit should be increased by 15 days for the sake of the participants as well as the buyers, he said.
Despite the international fair, we attain the fair for not getting foreign buyers, we want to be close to your native consumer, he added.
Babul Akter, Deputy Manager of Kiam told The New Nation the sales are better than last year, and if the time limit is extended we will reach our target.
Md Mostofa Kamal, owner of Safe Trading said my sales are now more than 1 lakh every day, but the authority is not increasing the fair time limit, it will be very frustrating for us.
Talking to The New Nation, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) vice chairman Md. Anwar Hossain said we got a letter for an extension of the fair time of around 15 days.
However, still, we are not clear how many days the fair time will be extended, it may be one day extended.
Bibek Sarkar, director of the fair, told this correspondent that the presence of visitors and buyers in this year’s fair is much higher compared to the previous years.
Every day about 100,000 to 150,000 visitors gather at the fair venue. As the last moment approaches, the crowd also increases in tandem. In line with this, the buying and selling of commodities are also increasing every day compared to the next day, he added.
During the holidays, the EPB official said the crowd as well as the buying and selling of commodities go beyond expectations.
Shafiqual Islam has been attending the trade fair since 2015, he said that his product Kashmiri Achar is very popular with visitors and his sales are very good.
