A modern three-storey building, spacious cold storage, expensive flower-processing and packaging machinery, and rows of refrigerated vans and trucks – Gabtoli’s wholesale flower market has them all. Yet few buyers come through its gates, the equipment lies unused, the vehicles remain parked, and dust gathers across the facility.
Built at a cost of crores of taka to provide flower growers and wholesalers with a permanent trading centre, the market has struggled to sustain regular business more than three years after its inauguration. Disputes over shop allocations and the reluctance of buyers to leave established markets in Shahbagh and Agargaon have kept it largely idle.
The market, beside Gabtoli Bus Terminal and managed by the Department of Agricultural Marketing, was inaugurated on 1 September 2023 by then agriculture minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.
During a visit last Friday, TBS found processing equipment unattended in one room, while packaging machines were locked inside another. Several covered vans and trucks bearing the department’s name stood outside. Officials said the equipment had been installed about three years ago.
A tea seller outside said visitors often asked what the building was for. “When I say it’s a flower market, they are surprised. They ask when flowers are ever sold here. We haven’t seen it either,” he said.
The market reopened on 26 January 2026, but trading lasted only a day before it closed again due to insufficient sales, according to Abdur Rahim, a flower grower from Jashore and president of the Gabtoli Wholesale Flower Traders Association.
He said another attempt to reopen the market in February also failed for the same reason.
Rahim said he had sent flowers to the market but suffered losses exceeding Tk1 lakh.
“Retailers do not want to come to Gabtoli while the Shahbagh market is operating. If buyers can get what they need near home, why would they travel farther?” he told TBS.
He said the market was not completely closed, as traders occasionally brought flowers there, but business remained unsustainable because of insufficient buyers.
Dispute over allocations
The department allocated trading spaces to 146 people, but leaders of existing wholesale markets have questioned whether the recipients were eligible.
Emamul Hossain, president of the Agargaon Wholesale Flower Traders Association, claimed only 16-18 recipients were active flower traders based in Dhaka.
He alleged that some spaces had gone to people who had not been involved in flower trading for years, while established traders were left out.
“Unless allocations to non-traders are cancelled and genuine traders get space, businesses in Shahbagh and Agargaon will not risk moving,” he said.
Babul Prasad, president of the Bangladesh Flower Society and Shahbagh Wholesale Flower Traders Association, said traders had not been consulted over the market’s design or operating rules.
He said the management committee comprised seven government officials and only three trader representatives, while transport and security arrangements were inadequate for growers arriving around 4am-5am.
Rahim, however, accused leaders of the Shahbagh and Agargaon markets of discouraging traders from relocating to Gabtoli to protect their income and influence.
He alleged that the leaders collected Tk2,000-Tk3,000 a month in rent from individual traders and feared losing that income if businesses moved.
He said the government had plans and enough space for 250-300 traders, urging interested businesses to apply and submit the required pay order.
Rahim also claimed that a fully operational Gabtoli market would help clear flower stalls from footpaths in Shahbagh and Agargaon while generating Tk10-15 lakh in monthly government revenue.
Department cites poor sales
Responding to the traders’ concerns over allocations and market management, Md Mofidul Islam, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Marketing and chairman of the Gabtoli Central Flower Market Management Committee, said the market had operated briefly, but traders stopped coming because sales fell short of expectations.
The existing markets in Shahbagh and Agargaon were another reason, he said.
He said some allottees who had not started trading filed a writ petition with the High Court, delaying further allocations. The case remains pending, but no injunction is currently in force, he added.
Applications for the remaining spaces were accepted until 30 September and are being scrutinised, he said.
Mofidul said the department did not intend to exclude established traders from Shahbagh and Agargaon. Many Agargaon traders had already applied, and additional space could be created if necessary.
The department was making every effort to get the nationwide central flower market operating, he said, adding that representatives of both established markets had recently attended a meeting at the director general’s office.
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