Local Correspondent, Cox’s Bazar Life
It is known to all that Maheshkhali’s sweet betel quid (mishti paan) is famous not only in the country but also in different parts of the world and most tourists don’t want to miss traveling to Maheshkhali island to taste this mishti paan.
Maheshkhali is the only hilly island in Bangladesh with long sea beaches, hilly areas, and mangrove forests where the country’s large portion of sweet betel is cultivated.
After entertaining the countrymen with colorful mishti paan, it has been also exported to various countries including the Middle East and Europe.
According to Maheshkhali Agriculture Office, about 40,000 people of the upazila are involved in betel quid cultivation at 1,600 hectares of land.
Nasirul Alam, agriculture officer of Maheshkhali, said that being a hilly island, Maheshkhali is suitable for sweet betel quid cultivation.
Middle East and Europe are the top destinations of sweet betel quid export.
The amount of total trade of betel quid at Maheshkhali is about Tk650-Tk700 yearly, where cultivation costs around Tk100-Tk150 crore and the rest is profit. Usually, it costs Tk3-Tk3.5 lakhs to cultivate sweet betel quid at one acre of land.
Kasim Ali (60) of Huanak Union has cultivated betel quid since his youth.
He said that after taking the betels from the barge, they divided them into 3 parts – big, medium, and small.
Betels are sold as bira, where a bira contains 180-200 betel leaves and the price of a large bira is above Tk500, the medium is Tk300-Tk400 and the price of a small bean is up to Tk100-Tk150.
