Staff Reporter :
Onion price skyrocketed in the local market, as it went upward in India,the main source of supply of the essential cooking ingredient.
Onion was selling at Tk 45 a kilogram yesterday, which sold at Tk 40 a week ago, according to data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh. Overall, the prices rose 39 percent to Tk 30-Tk 45 each kilogram yesterday from Tk 22-Tk 32 a month ago.
“The market has been stable over the past several months. Suddenly, it became unstable because of a price spiral in India,” said Bidan Chadra Saha, a wholesaler at Moulvibazar, one of the main depots of onion in the capital.
The wholesale prices of Indian onion that were Tk 24-Tk 25 a kg on August 2 shot up to Tk 30 yesterday, he said.
“Rainfall is to blame for the recent price hike,” said Redwan Islam, an importer at Bhomra Land Port that mainly handles onion imports, adding that the prices might go up further.
Some Indian media outlets report that the prices of onion have risen in the neighbouring country over the last two weeks.
Bangladesh annually produces more than 17 lakh tonnes of onion, it has to import a good amount to fully meet domestic requirements.
In the first 11 months of last fiscal year, 14.13 lakh tonnes of onion were imported, showed data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Currently, onions are mainly imported from Nashik, a city in the northwest region of Indian state Maharashtra, which is famous for its fresh agricultural produces.
“We have good domestic production this year, but fluctuation in the prices of onion in the neighbouring country is influencing prices here” said Ratan Saha, who follows agri-commodity market, particularly onion and garlic.
“This is because of our dependence on India for onion,” he said, adding that imports from Pakistan, Myanmar and China may rise for the soaring prices.
The bullish trend in the prices of onion is backed by three factors: procurement by Madhya Pradesh government, heavy rainfall in Gujarat and expectations of a lower and delayed crop in Karnataka, reported different Indian newspapers recently.
India had seen a bumper yeild of onion in 2016, which led to prices tumbling below production costs. Farmers protested, forcing the Madhya Pradesh government to procure onions at Rs 8 a kg.
Heavy rainfall in Gujarat reduced onion movement in the state.
