Economic Reporter :
Prices of almost all essentials, including vegetables and onion, have remained steady, especially in the capital’s kitchen markets on Tuesday compared to Monday’s prices.
However, prices of some major vegetables like brinjal, bean, pumphin (winter), bitter gourd, pointed gourd, potato and green chili have gone down.
Prices of three important spices — onion, ginger and garlic – have been static.
Prices of eggs and chicken varieties — broiler, Sonali and Pakistani – have also remained unchanged.
The state-run Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) in its daily report on Tuesday stated that the prices of eggs, local sugar, salt (packed), lentil, onion and flour (packed) are Tk 36-Tk 37 (four pieces), Tk 78-Tk 80 per kg, Tk 27-Tk 32 per kg, Tk 106-Tk 112 per kg, Tk 53-Tk 57 per kg and Tk 36-Tk 39 per kg respectively.
Tomatoes (mature) are selling at Tk 103-Tk 113 per kg, broiler chickens at Tk 148-Tk 153 a kg, soybean oil is selling at Tk 142-Tk 144 per litre, garlic (local) at Tk 48-Tk 58 per kg, garlic (imported) at Tk 113-Tk 120 per kg, ginger (local) at Tk 84-Tk 95 per kg and ginger (imported) at Tk 92-Tk 103 per kg.
After visiting some city kitchen markets, it has been found that prices of potatoes and other different essential spices have been stable compared to the past week prices.
Commenting on the situation, Hriday, a vegetable vendor at the city’s Adabor Bazar, told that prices of almost all the vegetables have declined compared to last week.
Round brinjal is selling at Tk 180-200 per five kg at the wholesale level this day as against Tk 250 last week, while long brinjal at Tk 150-250 per five kg at the wholesale level as against Tk 220-280 last week, he said.
As for the round and long brinjal at the retail level, he said he is selling them for Tk 40-Tk 60 per kg.
The vegetable vendor said he has bought five kg of bitter gourd at Tk 250 whereas it was Tk 350 last week. He is now selling it at Tk 60 per kg at the retail level.
Hriday is selling pumpkins (winter) at Tk 35-45 each at the retail level this day, which was Tk 40 to 50 each past week.
Asked about the retail prices of beans, cabbage, cauliflower and local cucumber, another vegetable mobile vendor Maksedul said he is selling beans at Tk 40-Tk 50 per kg – which was less than Tk 10-Tk 20 past week’s prices – cabbage and cauliflower each at Tk 25-30 and Tk 35-40 respectively.
Some other vegetable vendors at Adabor, Mohammadpur Krishi Market along with mobile vendors also echoed the same price level.
Akash, a wholesaler, said the prices of three important spices — onion, garlic and ginger – have remained stable in the wholesale market.
The prices of different varieties of onion including local are between Tk 42 and Tk 58 per kg in the wholesale market, while ginger (imported) and local garlic are selling at Tk 95-100 and Tk 50-60 per kg respectively, according to him.
The prices of garlic at wholesale markets range between Tk 45 and Tk 100 per kg, he said. Wholesaler Akash said he is making a profit of Tk 2.0 to 3.0 per kg from selling onion, and of Tk 5.0 to 10 from selling garlic and ginger at the retail level.
However, the price of diamond varieties of potatoes has declined by Tk 4.0 to Tk 5.0 per kg compared to the last couple of days. Rasel, a salesman at New Bismillah Broiler at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, told that he is selling broiler chickens at Tk 160-To 165 a kg.
Sonali and Pakistani chicken are selling at Tk 260 and Tk 280 per kg respectively, he said, adding that a dozen of red eggs are selling at Tk 110.
