Bhimruli Floating Guava Market (ভীমরুলী ভাসমান পেয়ারা বাজার)

Bhimruli lies in Jhalokati Sadar upazila in the Barishal division of southern Bangladesh, about 15 kilometres from Jhalokati town. Here several small canals meet among guava orchards, and on these waters a floating market forms each season. It is often called the floating guava market of Barishal, and it is the best known of several such markets in the area, along with Atghar Kuriana in neighbouring Pirojpur.

Guava has been grown in this low-lying belt of Jhalokati, Pirojpur and Barishal for generations. The orchards are planted on raised beds between narrow ditches, so the farmers move by small wooden boats and bring their harvest to market the same way. Traders from other parts of the country buy the fruit in bulk and ship it out by larger boats and trucks.

From about July to September the canal at Bhimruli fills with dozens of narrow boats loaded with green guavas. Farmers and traders bargain from boat to boat, and the market is busiest in the morning. Besides guava, boats also carry lemons, hog plums, vegetables and other local produce. Visitors can hire a small boat to row through the market and the orchard canals, and some farmers let visitors pick fruit.

Outside the season the canals are quiet, and there is little to see.

There is no entry fee. Most visitors reach Jhalokati or Barishal by overnight launch or by road, then continue to Bhimruli by auto rickshaw, and hire a boat locally.

Around 200 years of guava trade by canal

The floating market at Bhimruli is often described as about 200 years old, though no record fixes its start. It grew because the canals were the only practical way to move fruit out of the orchards. The area holds about 7,000 guava orchards along with many hog plum gardens, according to the district agriculture office, spread across some 30 villages.

In 2025 the district agricultural extension office put guava cultivation at about 562 hectares, with yields of about 10,000 kg per hectare. Villages such as Bhimruli, Mirakathi, Dumuria and Kirtipasha in Kirtipasha union supply much of the fruit, along with Nabagram union and parts of neighbouring unions.