The retail price of coarse rice, consumed by majority of the population, rose to Tk 48 per kg on November 11 from Tk 42.63 in May. It appears quite mysterious at a time when harvesting of Aman crops in the country is underway. We are appalled to see that rice prices are quite high despite huge imports and stocks in the government and private godowns. Millers are holding their stock by slowing down supply. So it is not a supply crisis rather big traders are creating an artificial supply crisis to force prices up. High prices are forcing poor consumers to cut buying of other essentials, besides reducing health expenses for the family and education expenses of the children. Plunderers have accumulated money and are not facing such livelihood challenges.
According to reports the government imported about five lakh tonnes of rice and the private sector traders 2.79 lakh tonnes of rice between July and November 10 this year. The government prompted imports because of the depletion of food stock at state-run warehouses causing the spike in rice price in domestic markets. To encourage imports it cut import duty to 25 percent from 62.5 per cent. Rice imports shot up to 13.59 lakh tonnes at the end of July.
Apart from government to government buying, the government also gave permission to 320 private firms to import 15.61 lakh tonnes of rice and many have already done imports. Meanwhile, the old import duty at 62.5 per cent has been restored as Aman harvesting has started. Food grains stock consisting of rice and wheat jumped to 15.26 lakh tonnes on November 10, up from 8 lakh tonnes in January last. Why then rice prices are escalating before harvesting season is a big question. We must say the present crisis has no relationship with stock rather it results from lack of monitoring and management of the market to precipitate the crisis.
