When Orange is still green and Cardamom is on the drier, it is the Banana that is dominating the business along the Thimphu-Gelegphu highway. However, the Banana business doesn’t do well compared to Cardamom and Orange businesses.
This time of the year, Banana is omnipresent in Dagana and Tsirang. Some farmers of the two dzongkhags flock to the tri-junction at Sunkosh where motorists from Thimphu, Dagana, and Gelegphu stop for a while and see, if there is anything that they would like to buy.
However, Banana never fetched high returns for the farmers especially during this time when the fruit is in abundance.
“There are only few buyers, people of Drukjeygang bring their Bananas here for sale. Since we cannot sell the fruit, we land up giving it to animals,” said one of the farmers, Sonam Choden.
Other farmers could not agree more.
“We are not able to sell Banana every day. We have to carry the stock back home and we don’t vehicles also. In the morning, we ask taxis to drop our goods to the junction for Nu 100. That way it gets spoiled, so we feed them to monkeys,” said another vendor, Sangay Bidha.
Bananas are loaded with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that are good for one’s body. But as dusk falls, almost 70 per cent of the produce remains unsold in a day. Vendors return home but they again brim with hope that next day more customers greet them.
