Rice prices going beyond poor’s reach

Construction worker Abu Taleb lives in the Mugdapara area of Dhaka city. The man with a limited income endured a big shock after he went to the local kitchen market to buy 10 kilograms of rice on Thursday.

“The last time I bought rice, it was Tk 45 per kg and I paid Tk 450 for 10 kgs. Now the shopkeeper wants Tk 520 for 10 kgs. It’s become tougher to afford that. I’ll have to ration my money more to buy the other essentials, vegetables and fish or meat if I pay Tk 70 extra for rice,” he said with a worried look.

Like Taleb, people from the lower and lower-middle classes are suffering as the latest price hikes are taking rice, the staple grain, beyond their reach.

Wholesale and retail prices of the most important food crop have increased by up to Tk 5 per kg over the past week. Even the lowest quality coarse rice is now being sold at over Tk 52 per kg in the retail markets of the capital.

Although the rising transport cost — caused by the latest fuel tariff hike — is being blamed mainly for the increase in rice prices, the reality is different. According to some traders, rice transport fare has gone up only by Tk 0.5-0.6 per kg on average.

But visits to various markets around Dhaka unveiled that the coarse rice is being sold at Tk 52-53 per kg. A week ago, it was Tk 47-48 per kg.

Meanwhile, the price of medium-quality rice paijam rose to Tk 55-56 per kg from last week’s Tk 50-52 and fine variety miniket’s rate is now Tk 68-72, up from Tk 66-67.

However, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) data, coarse rice was sold at Tk 50-54 per kg in the capital’s retail markets on Thursday while medium quality rice cost Tk 53-58 per kg and the fine variety Tk 65-78 per kg.

A week ago, coarse rice was at Tk 48-50 per kg, medium at Tk 50-56 and fine at Tk 62-75 per kg, according to TCB.

Excessive hikes

Md Mohsin, the owner of Comilla Rice Agency at the Rampura kitchen market, said a week ago they were able to sell rice at Tk 2,320 per sack (50 kg). “Now, we are buying the same quality rice at Tk 2,600 per sack. We sold miniket rice at Tk 3,280 per sack just last week but now we have to sell it at Tk 3,400,” he said.

He claimed that the rice prices have gone up because mill owners have increased the rates over the past week apart from the increased transport costs.

According to traders, the cost of transporting 300 sacks of rice (50 kgs per sack) from Kushtia, Dinajpur or Naogaon is currently at Tk 27,000-28,000 following the fuel price hike. That means the transport fare of one kg of rice will be Tk1.80-1.90. It was at Tk 1.35-1.45 before the latest fuel price hike.

Kawsar Azam, a wholesaler at Babu Bazar rice market and the vice president of Bangladesh Rice Merchants Association, confirmed that the transport costs for the capital’s wholesale and retail traders both have increased by Tk 0.5 per kg.

“From that point of view, the increase in rice prices by Tk 1 per kg is reasonable but not more than that,” he added. The government announced the new fuel tariffs last Friday night. Diesel and kerosene retail prices were fixed at Tk 114 per litre, octane Tk 135 and petrol Tk 130.

Since then, general people have been apprehensive because traders immediately said the prices of daily essentials will rise more since transport costs will go up.

The price hike came at a time when people, particularly from the lower- and middle-income groups, are already struggling with the skyrocketing commodity prices.

Between August 2021 and August 2022, the prices of various daily essentials, including rice, edible oil, onion, pulses, spices and vegetables, have increased up to 61 per cent.