Fresh Veggies At Koley Market

Ankita Chakraborty

Located adjacent to the flyover at Sealdah, Koley Market is the city’s leading wholesale bazaar for vegetables. Though you will have to buy vegetables in bulk, however, the cost of purchase would be lesser than what your neighbourhood grocer charges. Walk by the dingy lane that goes straight under the flyover and then enter the first left and you will find Koley Market on your left, congested with traders, wholesalers and suppliers.

The bazaar is housed under a shed occupied by countless vendors on both sides of the narrow alley. You will be greeted by fresh green leafy vegetables, which would tempt you to buy in bulk and at a great price. You will be taken aback to learn that the vendor selling vegetables next door charges you at least three to four times extra after sourcing it really cheap from this wholesale market.

History
Koley Market is said to be nearly 89 years old. Started as a commercial venture under Koley Properties Pvt Ltd, the idea was to establish a market for traders from rural areas who would come, sell their products and return home. According to Bablu Koley, the present Director of Koley Properties Pvt Ltd, since Sealdah Station is one of the most important rail-head terminals linking the suburbs with the city, Koley Market was set up in 1933 in its vicinity to allow easy access to the traders. Since then the market flourished as a key wholesale vegetable bazaar which supplies to other smaller markets in the city.

“The market was started by two of my great grandfathers Bhootnath Koley and Surendranath Koley. Also known as Nafur Babur Bazaar, the market was named after my great-great grandfather Nafur Koley, who used to lend money to vegetable traders for their business. Thereafter, the market flourished as vegetables procured from it by smaller traders and retailers were sold all over the city”, said Bablu Koley.

It was due to its close proximity to Sealdah Station that business grew as traders and farmers from neighbouring districts, towns and states found it easy to reach this hub.  Over the years, business steadily grew to make it the biggest wholesale vegetable bazaar in the city.

The Market
Koley market is one of the oldest and thriving wholesale markets of Calcutta. Apart from all varieties of vegetables, you will also find meat, fish, fruits, tea, cereals and spices. Various products arrive here from rural areas of West Bengal, before being distributed to smaller, local markets within the city and its outskirts.

The wooden gate carved with “Koley Properties Pvt. Ltd” will greet you when you walk into the dingy lane stacked with vegetables from floor to ceiling. Just outside the market gate, you will find huge trucks and tempos loading and off-loading heavy sacks of vegetables and along with the roadside hawkers, together they contribute to an endless chaos in the lane.

USP of the Market
The USP of this wholesale market is its sheer variety of fresh vegetables available at low prices. The ‘wow factor’ will urge you to buy more and more vegetables even if you really don’t need them. And it is not the sight of fresh vegetables that propels you but the vast price difference between Koley Market and retail markets which encourages your buying spree.

As you venture deep inside the market, you will find large stocks of vegetables stuffed in huge sacks ready to be transported to the local markets.

There are separate sections for onions, potatoes, chillies, pumpkins and seasonal vegetables such as cabbages, cauliflowers and salad greens. Choc-a-bloc with buyers, the floor of the market is slippery with rotting vegetables thrown around. As you navigate through the narrow rows of stalls, dodging vendors, buyers and sellers, you will get lost in a world of colours, accompanied by the sweet aroma of lemons and fresh corianders. The sights, sounds and smell are unique in this wholesale market.

The administrative office of Koley Market is located upstairs along with chambers of Director and other officials who keep a check on the daily business and chores carried on in the market.

Sellers
Kamal Dey, Public Relation Officer, Koley Market said: “There are thousands of sellers in the market. More than fifteen thousand people enter the market daily and trade for a huge volume of vegetables at a go, making it almost impossible to trace the exact number of traders in the bazaar.”

Traders are mainly from the rural areas who come to this market to sell vegetables daily. “However, traders have to pay a certain fee for entering the market which is calculated on the basis of the quantity of goods they bring in for sale”, claimed Mr Dey.

“The market is always swarming with both buyers and sellers at any point of the day. It is overcrowded particularly during the morning hours, from 4 AM to 7:30 AM and 4 PM to 7:30 PM,” said Yusuf, a vendor sitting in front of a pile of onions. “There is no respite. We sleep in dormitories in the first floors of the warehouses just above our workplace. The ruckus created early in the morning by the arrival of trucks cannot be avoided and serves as our alarm clock. We wake up, rush down and start our work,” said a worker, busy putting ridged gourds in a sack, his hands never pausing for a moment.

Products
The vast variety of products available at such low prices in these inflationary days leaves one astounded. Being a wholesale market, retailers buy vegetables from here at wholesale rates. One has to buy a minimum of five kilos of each variety of vegetable and 40 kilos in case of potatoes and onions.

“The market price depends upon the supply of vegetables. A customer has to buy in a unit of ‘palla’ measuring five kilos depending upon the rate for the day,” added Mr Dey.

Market Economics
“The profit margin is kept at a minimum and at times it is hardly profitable”, said a vendor. Dey added: “The sellers who know how to carry on their business or how to sell which product at what price during the day, earn the maximum profit. Basically it depends upon the seller, how cleverly one can sell all his products. In a month, a seller may earn a huge profit for around 20 days and incur losses on the rest of the days.”

Traders from West Bengal and other states as well as those from all the 320 haats across the state come to this market. Prices are less by almost 50 per cent compared to other local vegetable markets. “Although we buy vegetables at wholesale rates and sell at retail prices, we do not earn much profit as we have other expenses like transportation costs, coolie, rent and others which hardly leave us with a profit margin,” said Satyen Majhi, a retail vegetable seller. After paying all these charges, their profit margin comes to around 5–10 per cent per day depending upon sale, as per Majhi.

Source of Product
Products are sourced from all over West Bengal and other states. About 80 per cent of the products sold here are from West Bengal while the 20 per cent is sourced from outside. Districts including South 24 Paraganas, Hooghly, Nadia, Medinipur, Malda, Birbhum etc transport vegetables to this market. Places like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and others also send vegetables to this market. Vegetables are mainly transported by rail or road including trucks, tempos and vans.

Market Trend
With demand of vegetables soaring, prices are sky high and business is booming. More people tend to visit the wholesale market to buy vegetables in bulk at a really reasonable rate. The bazaar is thus a thriving one with sale increasing almost every day. So whenever you need to buy veggies or fruits in bulk for any celebrations at home, head for Koley Market for a good bargain.