Prices of sacrificial goats for Bakrid hit amid pandemic
Jul 30, 2020
Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir)[India], July 30 : Animal traders in Rajouri say they are unable to sell goats at viable prices, resulting in heavy losses for them this year during Bakr id, due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.
The Bakra mandi in Rajouri wore a deserted look on Thursday as sellers lined up their animals but without any prospective buyers.
Few buyers have turned up this year to buy goats for the upcoming Eid-ul-Adha festivities in the southern Kashmiri town, due to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.
"We are unable to realise the due price of each animal to give us any margin of viable profit," said one trader while talking to ANI.
Another trader Ashfaq Ahmed said that the people from his village who make a living by selling these animals have run into losses this year.
Pointing at one of his goats, "Last year I would sell this same goat for around Rs 60,000. Now I can barely manage to get Rs 20,000 out of it."
Another trader said that they had wait an entire year to raise the sacrificial animals with a lot of care, to be sold on this day. "We rear these animals with a lot of care and attention only to realise their full potential to make a sale on this day. We put in a lot of effort in transporting them here. But this year due to the pandemic, we are still sitting here without any customer," he concluded.
Like the rest of the country, the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir have been hit by the corona virus pandemic. According to official numbers released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 7,749 cases have been reported in the region along with 333 reported deaths.
