Staff Reporter :
The meat, sugar, gram, garlic, edible oil, spice, date and fruits have become pricier ahead of the holy month Ramzan despite adequate supply.
Traders attributed the price hike to a surge in demand for the items commonly used in preparing different traditional foods in the Ramzan.
Market observers said absence of government monitoring has encouraged a section of traders to raise the prices at their will, battering the limited income groups.
The beef market went volatile as prices jumped to Tk 500-Tk 520 per kg while buffalo meat, in the name of beef, were being sold at Tk 470-Tk 500 per kg in many places in the city.
The prices of beef varied from market to market at a range between Tk 20 and Tk 40 per kg.
Expressing his grief, Sheikh Riyaz Uddin, a private bank employee said he bought beef at Tk 490 a kg last nweek, but witnessed a hike by Tk 30 per kg.
The traders just needed an excuse of any occasion to deceive the consumers due to absence of market monitoring by the government, he said while buying essentials at Shanti Nagar kitchen market on Monday morning.
Md Amjad Hossain, a meat trader at the same market said prices of animals witnessed significant hike in a week at Gabtoli, the city’s lone permanent cattle market.
He said that an ox, weighing 100 kgs of meat, was selling at Tk 49,000-Tk 50,000 on Tuesday, which was Tk 44,000-Tk 46,000 earlier. He said the demand surges ahead of the Shab-e-Barat occasion.
Meanwhile, the prices of broken chickpea, sugar, onion and garlic prices also witnessed fresh hike.
Broken chickpea of medium varieties were being traded at Tk 85-95 a kg while finer quality at Tk 100-Tk 120 a kg in the city markets on Wednesday. It makes an average price hike of Tk 10 a kg in the last five days.
Sugar prices surged to Tk 70-Tk 76 a kg, a Tk 2 hike just in five days. The price of garlic (imported variety) jumped to Tk 220-Tk 240 a kg from Tk 200-Tk 220 a kg.
Local onion varieties were selling at Tk 32-Tk 40 a kg while imported ones at Tk 24-Tk 35 a kg-Tk 3-Tk 4 hike per kg during the period.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said there is no surveillance in the market which is encouraging the unscrupulous traders’ foul play.
He said the city corporations have a role to fix the beef and mutton prices at the markets and the traders are bound to follow the price. “It is totally absent in the market for the last six months.”
There is no shortage of essentials like sugar, chickpea following surplus import, low global prices of the products, he said, stressing the need for conducting random drives against the manipulators to keep the prices of commodities within reach of the limited income group of people.
Date was selling at Tk 250 to 700 per kg, mango at Tk 70 to 95 per kg, apple at Tk jackfruit at Tk120 to 200 per piece.
