Anisul Islam Noor :
The price of vegetables, rice and most of other essentials has skyrocketed continuously over the last few weeks despite adequate supply and almost steady price trend in the global market.
The stand of higher price of essential is hitting the people of fixed income group, market analyst said.
However, price of rice, edible oil, sugar, salt, vegetables, chicken, garlic, ginger, onion have gone up notably compared to a month back.
According to available data of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) showed with the commerce and agriculture ministries, barring a few items, supply of the essentials is good enough to meet the local demand.
Market analysts blamed that the unbridled price spiraling on poor market monitoring by the government agencies and absence of penalty for the price manipulators.
As per accounts of the TCB and Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), prices of rice (coarse and medium varieties) soared by 20-25 per cent (pc), vegetables 20-100 pc, edible oil 7-10 pc, salt 20 pc, sugar 17-18 pc, onion eight pc, garlic 10 pc and ginger 20 per cent during the period.
According to the commerce and agriculture ministries, the country’s rice production was 34.57 million (3.457 crore) tonnes against the demand of 31.0 million tonnes, edible oil import exceeded 1.9 million tonnes in the last 12 months against the demand of 1.5 million tonnes and stock of salt was 1.8 million tonnes against the demand of 1.67 million tonnes.
Supply of onion was 2.4 million tonnes, including 1.704 million tonnes of local production, against its demand of 2.0 million tonnes, ginger’s stock was 0.45 million tonnes against the demand of 0.35 million tonnes and supply of garlic was 0.5 million tonnes against the need of 0.5 million tonnes.
Sugar and oil refiners raised the prices of the two essentials recently ignoring the Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC)’s recommended prices, a commerce ministry official said.
Bottled soybean oil of different brands was selling at Tk98-Tk102 a litre against the BTC recommended Tk97 a litre, he said. Sugar was selling at Tk66 a kg at mill-gates against BTC-proposed Tk64.
The commodity was retailing at Tk70-Tk75 a kg.
The commission recommended Tk35 a kg for super refined salt and Tk22 for thick quality salt but the refiners were selling the products at Tk42 a kg and Tk28 a kg respectively, said the official.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said the refiners bought crude salt at Tk4.5 to Tk 7 a kg at the growers’ level and imported 0.25 million tonnes of the item at Tk4.0-Tk5.0 per kg.
He said production of one kg refined sugar cost not more than Tk30. Rice millers and importers are making windfall profits hurting common consumers, he commented.
Munshi Shafiul Haque, additional secretary of the commerce ministry, claimed the Price Monitoring and Forecasting Cell (PMFC) of the ministry was closely monitoring the price situation.
Prices of soybean and sugar rose to some extent in the global market, which has reflected in the local kitchen markets.
Salt refiners has committed to the ministry to reduce the price by Tk4 per one-kg pack.
Prices of rice might ease down within a few days with the beginning of Aman harvest, he expected.
Of vegetables, most of the vegetables – pointed gourd, radish, eddo French, bitter gourd cucumber were selling between Tk 50 to 60 per kg in the city’s kitchen markets on Friday.
Brinjal sold at Tk60-Tk80 per kg from Tk30-Tk 40 a month ago, Green Chilli was selling at Tk180 to 200 per kg. Tomato at Tk 90 to 100, potato at Tk 25, bean at Tk 110 to 130, bottle gourd at Tk 50 to 70 per piece, ash gourd at Tk 30 to 35, cabbage at Tk 35 cauliflower at 35 to 40 per piece, coriander leaves at Tk 300 per kg, green chilli at 60 to 80 kg, capsicum (red) at Tk 450 kg and capsicum (green) at Tk 350 to 400 per kg, Papaya was the cheapest vegetable sold at Tk30 kg.
Md Emran Master, president of Bangladesh Kachamal Arot Malik Samity, a Karwan Bazar-based wholesalers association said best quality Brinjal was selling at Tk 50 in Karwan Bazar which was trading at Tk80 a kg in Hatirpool, Santi Nagar and Newmarket- a 60 per cent price gap.
After being steady for the last three months, prices of broiler chicken increased by Tk15-Tk 20 last week as broiler was sold at Tk 140-Tk 150 per kg.
Sugar (white) was sold at Tk 70 to 76 per kg while sugar brown sold at Tk58 to 65.
Onion was sold at Tk 35 and imported at Tk 27 to 29 per kg. Ginger price increased by Tk10-Tk 20 it was selling at Tk 90 to 130, lentil at Tk 130 to 145 per kg.
The price of vegetables, rice and most of other essentials has skyrocketed continuously over the last few weeks despite adequate supply and almost steady price trend in the global market.
The stand of higher price of essential is hitting the people of fixed income group, market analyst said.
However, price of rice, edible oil, sugar, salt, vegetables, chicken, garlic, ginger, onion have gone up notably compared to a month back.
According to available data of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) showed with the commerce and agriculture ministries, barring a few items, supply of the essentials is good enough to meet the local demand.
Market analysts blamed that the unbridled price spiraling on poor market monitoring by the government agencies and absence of penalty for the price manipulators.
As per accounts of the TCB and Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), prices of rice (coarse and medium varieties) soared by 20-25 per cent (pc), vegetables 20-100 pc, edible oil 7-10 pc, salt 20 pc, sugar 17-18 pc, onion eight pc, garlic 10 pc and ginger 20 per cent during the period.
According to the commerce and agriculture ministries, the country’s rice production was 34.57 million (3.457 crore) tonnes against the demand of 31.0 million tonnes, edible oil import exceeded 1.9 million tonnes in the last 12 months against the demand of 1.5 million tonnes and stock of salt was 1.8 million tonnes against the demand of 1.67 million tonnes.
Supply of onion was 2.4 million tonnes, including 1.704 million tonnes of local production, against its demand of 2.0 million tonnes, ginger’s stock was 0.45 million tonnes against the demand of 0.35 million tonnes and supply of garlic was 0.5 million tonnes against the need of 0.5 million tonnes.
Sugar and oil refiners raised the prices of the two essentials recently ignoring the Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC)’s recommended prices, a commerce ministry official said.
Bottled soybean oil of different brands was selling at Tk98-Tk102 a litre against the BTC recommended Tk97 a litre, he said. Sugar was selling at Tk66 a kg at mill-gates against BTC-proposed Tk64.
The commodity was retailing at Tk70-Tk75 a kg.
The commission recommended Tk35 a kg for super refined salt and Tk22 for thick quality salt but the refiners were selling the products at Tk42 a kg and Tk28 a kg respectively, said the official.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said the refiners bought crude salt at Tk4.5 to Tk 7 a kg at the growers’ level and imported 0.25 million tonnes of the item at Tk4.0-Tk5.0 per kg.
He said production of one kg refined sugar cost not more than Tk30. Rice millers and importers are making windfall profits hurting common consumers, he commented.
Munshi Shafiul Haque, additional secretary of the commerce ministry, claimed the Price Monitoring and Forecasting Cell (PMFC) of the ministry was closely monitoring the price situation.
Prices of soybean and sugar rose to some extent in the global market, which has reflected in the local kitchen markets.
Salt refiners has committed to the ministry to reduce the price by Tk4 per one-kg pack.
Prices of rice might ease down within a few days with the beginning of Aman harvest, he expected.
Of vegetables, most of the vegetables – pointed gourd, radish, eddo French, bitter gourd cucumber were selling between Tk 50 to 60 per kg in the city’s kitchen markets on Friday.
Brinjal sold at Tk60-Tk80 per kg from Tk30-Tk 40 a month ago, Green Chilli was selling at Tk180 to 200 per kg. Tomato at Tk 90 to 100, potato at Tk 25, bean at Tk 110 to 130, bottle gourd at Tk 50 to 70 per piece, ash gourd at Tk 30 to 35, cabbage at Tk 35 cauliflower at 35 to 40 per piece, coriander leaves at Tk 300 per kg, green chilli at 60 to 80 kg, capsicum (red) at Tk 450 kg and capsicum (green) at Tk 350 to 400 per kg, Papaya was the cheapest vegetable sold at Tk30 kg.
Md Emran Master, president of Bangladesh Kachamal Arot Malik Samity, a Karwan Bazar-based wholesalers association said best quality Brinjal was selling at Tk 50 in Karwan Bazar which was trading at Tk80 a kg in Hatirpool, Santi Nagar and Newmarket- a 60 per cent price gap.
After being steady for the last three months, prices of broiler chicken increased by Tk15-Tk 20 last week as broiler was sold at Tk 140-Tk 150 per kg.
Sugar (white) was sold at Tk 70 to 76 per kg while sugar brown sold at Tk58 to 65.
Onion was sold at Tk 35 and imported at Tk 27 to 29 per kg. Ginger price increased by Tk10-Tk 20 it was selling at Tk 90 to 130, lentil at Tk 130 to 145 per kg.
