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The market of flours witnessed an abrupt price hike since the Russia-Ukraine war started causing a significant price rise of wheat made bakery products.
This situation emerged as many small bakery companies have reduced their production due to persistent hike of raw materials, opined entrepreneurs. Specially, many small bakery companies already have shut their production facing extreme competitions, experts said.
Prices of loose and packaged flour hiked Tk 2-5 in per kilograms while bakery goods Tk 10-20 in per kg, The Business Post correspondent found after visiting capital and its adjacent markets. Venders said due to price hike many people have reduced supply causing shortage of goods in the market.
Loose flour was available at Tk36-37 in city’s Gopibag, Rampura and other markets on Tuesday which was Tk 34-35 before the war. In capital’s adjacent areas per kg flour was sold at Tk35-36. Earlier, different branded packaged 2-kg flour and corn flour were available at Tk80 and Tk95 which is now sold at Tk90 and Tk110, respectively.
Different bakery products like bred, cookies and chanachur also displayed unusual price rise each packet of bread was available at Tk35 before the war which is now sold at Tk40 and per kg chanachur was Tk 160 and now it is sold at Tk180, similarly biscuits prices also rise minimum Tk5 in each packets.
Md Foyez, seller of Cumilla store in Gopibag said producers have massively reduced the supply of bakery products after the war started.
“Earlier, representatives of different bakery company use to visit different shops but now we are paying them in advance for goods with a high price rate. Firstly, prices of edible oil hiked later flour and corn flours also followed same way instigating them to reduce production.”, he said.
Bangladesh Bread Biscuit Manufacturers Association president Md Rezaul Haque Reza said small companies were already struggling due to high competition imposed by the large companies. Now, many of them are unable to comply with expenses due to price hike of raw materials like flour, oil and sugar, he said.
So most of the Bakery companies have reduced their production up to 50 per cent and many have shut the business.
At least five bakery shops have shut operation in different places of Hazaribag, Mohammadpur, Kamrangirachar in the last week while the situation may deteriorate further with time.
Traders said currently, per sack (50kg) corn flour is available at Tk2,400 in the wholesale market which was Tk 13,00 to Tk14,00 last year. Per ton wheat was sold at $1,250-$1280 in the global market presently, which was only $700 two months back. Citing international market, they said, that the prices will hike more in the upcoming days.
Russia-Ukraine war update
The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is deepening as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce, in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission, reports UNB quoting Associated Press.
A third round of talks between the two sides ended with a top Ukrainian official saying there had been minor, unspecified progress toward establishing safe corridors that would allow civilians to escape the fighting. Russia’s chief negotiator said he expects those corridors to start operating Tuesday.
But that remained to be seen, given the failure of previous attempts to lead civilians to safety amid the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.
Well into the second week of the invasion, with Russian troops making significant advances in southern
Ukraine but stalled in some other regions, a top U.S. official said multiple countries were discussing whether to provide the warplanes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pleading for.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces continued to pummel cities with rockets, and fierce fighting raged in places. In the face of the bombardments, Zelenskky said Ukrainian forces were showing unprecedented courage.
