Price of onion declines, chicken keeps rising

The price of onion declined a day after the government withdrew import duty on the commodity while prices of chicken and other essential commodities continued to rise in Dhaka’s kitchen markets.

Spots visits to several kitchen markets by this correspondent on Friday found that a kilogram of local variety onion was selling at Tk 65-70 which was sold at Tk 75-80 last week. The Indian variety onion was selling between Tk 60 and Tk 65.

“At the Shyam Bazar wholesale market, local onions are selling at Tk 52 per kg and same is the price of Indian onions while Burmese onions are selling at Tk 40 to Tk 42 per kg on Friday,” Hazi Md Mazed , general secretary of the Onion Traders Association told The Business Post.

Mazed, also vice-president of Shyam Bazar Banik Samity, said, “The supply of both local and Indian onions is aplenty that might be the reason behind reduction of the price.”

Traders think that onion prices may gradually reduce in the coming days as the government has withdrawn duty on its import.

Md Aslam, an onion seller at Mirpur-1 said, “Onions from Pabna is selling at Tk 70 per kg while those grown in Faridpur are selling at Tk 65 per kg.”

The price of broiler chicken and sonali chicken went up compared to the last week.

Broiler chicken was selling at Tk 182 to Tk 185 per kg compared to Tk 177 to Tk 180 per kg in the past week. Besides, the price of sonali chicken was Tk 315 to Tk 320 per compared to Tk 294 to 298 per kg in the last couple of days.

Md Biddan Miah, a seller at Al Baraka Chicken House at Mirpur-1, said, “Price of all types of chicken is high comparing with the last week. I think the trend will continue in the coming days.”

A customer Ahnab Hasan Mehedi said, “The prices of essential items like chicken, vegetables and other commodities keep rising every day which is no longer affordable for me.”

On September 14, the government withdrew import duty on onion and reduced duty on sugar by 10 per cent to stabilise the prices of the two essential commodities in the local market.