Green chilli price cut in half on import

With enough supply of green chilli in the capital kitchen markets, the prices of the essential kitchen ingredient has now fallen by half which has brought a great relief to the consumers.

The price of green chilli shot up to Tk 200-Tk 240 a kilogramme in the kitchen markets over the week ending on Friday due to a supply crunch even after the government allowed an import of Indian variety.

Prices of green chilli had earlier started falling in the last few days immediately after the beginning of huge import of Indian green peppers.

In the wholesale market, per kg green chilli sells at Tk 70-Tk 80 on Monday while on the retailers end it costs more than Tk 100.

However, one week ago, the wholesale price of per kg chilli was Tk 190. At that time retailers charged Tk 250 from the consumers.

Traders said the price of daily cooking ingredients reduced automatically when the government issued import permits for Indian green peppers. Even the prices of the local chillis started falling when the media published the news on chilli import.

However, the supply was still a little bit short for the last few days in the kitchen market due to the unfavourable climate.

Moreover, the price of imported chillis surpassed local variety as most of the retailers are in search of Indian chillis instead of local one.

“Indian chilli is longer in size while its color is also deep green compared to the local one. Indian green pepper attracts more customers because of its size as well as its colour,” said Md Roni, a wholesaler from Karwan Bazar while talking to The Business Post.

“In last year, we used to buy per kg of chilli from wholesalers at Tk 190. So we had to sell it for up to Tk 240 to the customers who normally buy 100 gram or 50 gram. Now we sell per kg at Tk 100-Tk 120 as we buy at Tk 70-Tk 80,” said Selim Hossain, a retailer from Shewrapara area of Mirpur.

“We did not receive the Indian chilli five days ago but there was news of chilli import. This news reduced the price in the capital,” said Md Hanif, a wholesaler from Karwanbazar.

Though green chilli can be produced round the year in Bangladesh, this year production of this essential ingredient was largely hampered due to the flood in the southern part of the country. The yield was also halted seriously because of the rainfall in the last week.

However, officials concerned, have ruled out any such fear of serious scarcity of production.

“Just before two weeks of the recent price hike, per kg chilli was sold for Tk 5. Now, the price of per kg chilli is Tk 150 in the wholesale market in Ghior,” said Sheikh Bipu Hossain, Upozila Agriculture Officer.

However, the wholesale price in Dhaka is now below Tk 100 currently.