Despite a drop in paddy prices acrose the country, the prices of fine varieties of rice are yet to come down in Dhaka and port city Chittagong.
Experts say a group of unscrupulous traders are cashing in on the lax monitoring by the administration.
Fine quality Miniket, Najirshail and Jeerashail were selling at Tk 56 to 62 a kg and medium quality Lata and Brridhan-28 at Tk 50-Tk 52 a kg in Dhaka on Sunday, almost the same price as it was in June.
In the last one month, Boro paddy prices saw a fall by Tk 150-Tk 300 a 75-kg sack.
When contracted over phone, traders from Rangpur, Dinajpur, Pabna, Kushtia, Naogaon, Mymensingh said rridhan-28 variety of paddy was selling at Tk 1500-Tk 1550 a 75-kg sack and Jeerashail variety at Tk 1700-Tk 1750 in those areas.
Farm economist Prof Gazi M Jalil said millers, traders and importers are making big profits due to the fall in the paddy prices.
“Big millers and importers should be brought under scrutiny so that consumers with limited income could buy rice at affordable prices,” he said, suggesting that the government should strengthen its market intervention to give some relief to the low-income group.
Prof Jalil also said the public rice stock has declined to a record low, which is not a good sign for the food security of the country.
Akkas Ali, a rice trader at Badamtoli in the capital, said prices of fine rice varieties declined only by Tk 30-Tk 35 a 50-kg sack at the rice mills in the last two weeks.
But this slight fall couldn’t be reflected at the retail level, he added.
Mohammad Asadullah, joint secretary of Badamtoli-Babubazar Rice Wholesalers Association, said finer paddy prices decreased by Tk 4-Tk 5 a kg in the millers’ hubs. So, the prices of Miniket, Brridhan-28 and Jeerashail should come down by minimum Tk 4 a kg, he added.
KM Layek Ali, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Auto Major Husking Mill Owners Association said the import duty cut has led to the decline in paddy prices significantly, as stockists started selling out their paddy fearing a fall in prices.
He also said the prices of fine and medium quality rice have marked a Tk 2-Tk 3 drop per kg in rice mills in July. This downtrend would continue if paddy prices keep falling.
Miniket is selling at Tk 50-Tk 54 a kg and Brridhan-28 at Tk 45-Tk 46 a kg at mill gates, Ali added.
Meanwhile, coarse rice varieties are now trading at Tk 44 to Tk 48 a kg at retail markets in the city, down from Tk 46-Tk 50 in June, according to sources at the key kitchen markets.
These varieties were selling at Tk 38-Tk 44 a kg in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Kushtia and elsewhere in the millers’ hubs.
The National Board of Revenue reduced the import duty on rice to 10 per cent from 28 per cent on June 21, which helped ease coarse rice prices.
Meanwhile, the number of L/Cs for importing the staple food through the private sector showed a notable rise recently, Food Ministry data show.
The private sector imported 0.117 million tonnes of rice in the first 23 days of this fiscal year while the total import in the last fiscal was 0.133 million tonnes.
Shawkal Jamal, an importer in Naogaon, said the import duty cut has refueled in the increase in rice imports.
Imported Swarna variety was selling at Tk 39-Tk 40 a kg when the same variety from local sources was trading at Tk 42-Tk 44 a kg, he said.
The recent decision of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) allowing traders to import rice on three months’ deferred payment (until December 31, 2017) has prompted importers to bring in more rice, he added.
Last month, the central bank allowed traders to import rice at zero margin. This means importers will not have to make any advance payment to banks for opening Letters of Credit.
The prices of coarse varieties in Bangladesh are the highest among the rice producing nations.
The prices of coarse varieties imported from India, Thailand and Vietnam are Tk 35.27 to Tk 38.09 a kg now when those are Tk 38-Tk 43 a kg (mill-gate price) in Bangladesh.
