Home ›› 19 Aug 2022 ›› Front
The continuous price hike of essential commodities has put middle and low-income people under serious pressure. Their struggle to cope with the escalating cost of living continues.
Maruf Hossain, a private employee and resident of Segunbagicha in the capital, came to buy rice at Segunbagicha Kitchen Market on Thursday. He was coming out of the market disappointed without buying rice even after walking around for half an hour.
“I bought miniket rice for Tk 70 per kg a week ago which is too high for me. Now the sellers are asking the price of the miniket rice at Tk 76 per kg which is Tk 6 more per kg. So is not possible for me to buy the rice at such a price”, he said.
Mannan, a construction worker, was roaming around at the capital’s Mugdapara kitchen market, to get rice with Tk 1 less, getting disappointed and said, “I am a poor person, I used to eat coarse rice at a low price. Now the price of the rice has also gone up beyond my purchasing limit. The shopkeeper asked for Tk 58 while I wanted to pay Tk 1 less, but I couldn’t.”
Different rice markets in the capital show the price of all types of coarse and fine rice has increased by Tk 6-7 per kg in the last 15 days. Miniket rice was sold at Segunbagicha market at Tk 76-77 per kg, Nazirshail rice at Tk 78-79 per kg, BR-28 and BR-29 rice at Tk 62 per kg. The price of coarse rice (Guti) is Tk 60 per kg.
Mamun, a rice seller in Segunbagicha market, said that the government had talked about importing rice. As the price of imported rice is high, the mill owners have increased the price of local rice in coordination with it, he added.
According to the latest information from Food Ministry on Tuesday, importers have taken permission to import 10 lakh tons of rice, but only 26 thousand tons of rice have been imported privately in the last two months.
Not only in the rice market, the prices of all kinds of food products including oil, sugar, pulses, flour, atta, spices, onions, fish meat, and eggs have increased in the last one week.
Soybean oil is sold at Tk 166-182 a litre, which was Tk 155-165 a litre a week ago. The sugar price is hiked by Tk 8 per kg during the week. Sugar is now sold at Tk 90 a kg, which was Tk 82-85. Packaged flour is being sold at Tk 55-60 per kg, which was Tk 48-50 a week ago. Loose atta is sold at Tk 50-55 per kg, compared to Tk 42-45 per kg a week ago. Small- grained lentils are sold at Tk 140 per kg increasing by Tk 10.
Spice prices have also hiked over the week while onion prices increased by Tk 5-10.
Onions are sold at Tk 50-55 per kg. The price of ginger and garlic remained stable but the price of yellow pepper increased. Tk 420 taka per kg of dry chili is now Tk 480 per kg. Meanwhile, fish and meat prices have increased along with grocery products.
In a week, the price of eggs has increased by Tk 15 per dozen. Farm fresh chicken eggs are sold at Tk 150-165 per dozen. The price of eggs will come down within a day or two, and the sellers emancipate.
Already, the prices of eggs in the wholesale markets have come down. Broiler chickens were sold at Tk 180-200 per kg yesterday (Thursday) which was Tk 170-180 per kg a week ago.
The price of farmed Pangas fish has gone up beyond the reach of low-income people. Medium-sized pangas are sold at Tk 170-180 per kg which was TK 150-160 per kg a week ago. Tilapia fish is sold at Tk 200-220 per kg which was Tk 160-180 per kg a week ago.
