Prices of chicken, eggs go up alongside onion

The prices of broiler chicken and eggs have gone up alongside the price of onion making life a bit more difficult for the people with low income.

On Friday, upon visiting several kitchen markets around the capital including Mirpur, Karwan Bazar and Mohakhali, it was seen that the price of broiler chicken, cock or sonali chicken and onion prices went up compared to the last week.

Many consumers expressed their disappointment over the price hike of essential kitchen market commodities.

However, the traders have claimed that the price mainly goes up due to the high demand for these essential commodities among the customers amidst the little supply crunch.

Broiler chicken was being sold for Tk 150-Tk 155 per kg, compared to Tk 140-Tk 145 in the last week in various kitchen markets in Dhaka. The price of cock or sonali chicken was Tk 290-Tk 295 per kg, compared to Tk 275-Tk 280 during last week.

The price of broiler eggs also went up by around Tk 10-Tk 15 per dozen in just a week, as it was being sold for Tk 110-Tk 120.

Meanwhile, the price of locally grown onions has also increased from around Tk 42-Tk 45 per kg.

The government had taken various measures to lower the prices of spices such as the onion, including open market sales and meeting with traders but in vain.

On Friday, it was found that the retail traders were selling locally grown onion at Tk 45-50 per kg.

Shahin Sarkar, a trader at Mirpur-1 kitchen said, “The price of chicken increases this week because of higher demand against lower supply compared to the recent past week.”

“The packaged sugar is now being sold at Tk 84 per kg while unpacked sugar is being sold at Tk 80 per kg,” said Abdul Karim of Ma-Babar Doya General Store at Karwan Bazar while talking to The Business Post on Friday.

Earlier on September 9, the government had fixed new prices for unpacked and packed sugar for the first time. The maximum retail price of per kg unpacked sugar was fixed at Tk 74, down from Tk 80 while the price of packed sugar was set at Tk 75 from Tk 85.

The prices of vegetables have also gone up, with most of the vegetables costing more than Tk 40 in the wake of increased demand against the supply shortage.

Pointed gourd, eggplant, okra, teasel gourd, snake gourd and other vegetables are selling above Tk 40-T 60 per kg.

Only potatoes and green papayas are being sold for less than Tk40. However, their prices went up too compared to the previous week.

Each kg gourd was being sold at Tk 40-Tk 45, potato at Tk 25-Tk 30, eggplant at Tk 55-Tk 60, tomato at Tk 90-Tk 95 and green papayas at Tk 25-Tk 30.

Besides, lemon (four pieces) was being sold at Tk 15-20 while green bananas (four pieces) at Tk 25-Tk 30.

The prices of edible oil remained high in the city over the week as a one-litre bottle of soya bean oil sold for Tk 150-Tk 153.

However, the prices of different kinds of fish remained stable in the kitchen markets on Friday.