Al Amin :
Onion prices have shot up to Tk 100-120 a kilogram (kg) in Dhaka and other major cities on Monday, bringing tears to thousands of consumers.
India on Sunday imposed a ban on export of onions, and the wholesale and retail markets across Bangladesh witnessed an overall hike of Tk 20-30 a kg within the 24 hours.
Insiders attributed the overnight price hike to the latent act of market manipulation when supply of the commodity remained adequate in the market. In Dhaka, locally grown onion was selling at Tk 100-105 per kg at retail markets yesterday, while it was selling at Tk 120 per kg in Khulna.
Per kg locally grown onion was sold at Tk 80, while Indian onion at Tk 65-70 on Sunday.
While visiting Shyambazar on Monday, this correspondent found that the onion of local variety was selling at Tk 92-108 and that of Myanmar variety at Tk 85- 90 per kg.
Imported Indian varieties were almost absent in the wholesale markets while few trading houses were selling those at Tk 96-102 per kg at Shyambazar, the largest wholesale market in Dhaka.
At Khatunganj wholesale market in Chattogram, the price went up to Tk 100 per kg.
Md Ismail Hossain, manager of M/s Panna Banijjaloy of Shyambazar, said the Indian ban on export caused surge in prices.
He said traders in Faridpur, Pabna, Magura, Kushtia, Jhinaidah have raised prices of local onion overnight.
Md Shahidul Islam, proprietor of M/s Alhaj Vandar at Shyambazar, said prices might cool down amid entrance of Myanmar onion. “But it would take time,” he added.
The government open market sale (OMS) of onion, however, put almost no impact in the market.
Amid skyrocketing price of onion, the State-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) was selling 35 tonnes of onion from 35 trucks in different points of the city at Tk 45 a kg.
“TCB was selling only 35 tonnes through OMS against a daily demand of 2000 tonnes onion. So, this is helping much on controlling the onion price. Poor market monitoring also encouraged traders to raise prices,” Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, Secretary, the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) told The New Nation.
He said there was 1.9 million tonnes of onion production in the country while a total of 1.1 million tonnes were imported this year.
So, there was no logic of rising prices by such a high margin when demand is maximum 2.4 million tonnes, he added.
“There’s nothing to be panicked over the price hike of onion as there’s adequate stock of it at government silos,” Commerce Secretary Dr Mohammad Jafar Uddin said while talking to reporters at the Secretariat on Monday.
He added the TCB has already started selling of the commodity. “It will sell onion until its price becomes stable.”
Jafar Uddin also said that the government has decided to form monitoring teams to check further price hike of onion at the wholesale and retail market as the country has adequate onion stock.
“A total of 10 monitoring teams will be formed led by the Additional Secretaries of the Commerce Ministry to oversee the wholesale and retail market so that none could create artificial crisis of the kitchen staple through hoarding it unethically, he added.
“Tough action will be taken if anybody is found hoarding onion for creating artificial crisis in the market,” the official said.
The Commerce Secretary further mentioned that the government has taken an initiative to import onion from Myanmar, Turkey and Egypt, while a big consignment of it has reached Chattogram Port from Myanmar, said Zafar Uddin.
