Home ›› 27 Jan 2023 ›› Front
Prices of essential commodities, including sugar, oil, pulse, chickpea and spices, are on the rise in the capital’s kitchen markets due to a supply crisis which traders fear will intensify in the coming days.
According to traders, prices of sugar, some varieties of pulses and spices have jumped by Tk5-30 per kg within a week in some markets.
Retailers alleged that many brand companies have reduced the supply of several essential food items even after receiving purchase orders.
Mostafizur Rahman, a retailer at Segunbagicha Kitchen Market said, “A 50 kg sack of sugar cost Tk 520 a week ago on the wholesale market. Now it costs Tk 300 more.
Besides, we are not getting edible oil supply as per our market demand.”
Besides, a decrease in imports is pushing up domestic spice prices. Traders fear that if this continues, the market might face a disastrous situation.
However, the central bank said the opening of letters of credit (LCs) have been simplified to ensure steady imports of essential goods.
Bangladesh Bank officials hope that the product shortage will end soon.
“We are very much aware about the essential commodity products import. There is no dollar shortage about such product imports,” said Mezbaul Haque, spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank.
The Bangladesh Bank is currently selling dollars to banks for the imports of essential commodities but market insiders said that is not sufficient to meet the country’s demand. With Ramada coming, the government is pressuring the central bank to release dollars from its reserve to ramp up imports of the food items to meet the increasing demand. The commerce ministry has made several requests to the banking regulator in this regard, which is yet to be heard.
Visiting many retail and wholesale markets of the capital including Segunbagicha, Mohammadpur Krishi Market, this correspondent found that loose sugar was being sold at Tk 115-120 per kg on Thursday, up from Tk110-115 per kg last week.
Meanwhile, packaged sugar, being sold at Tk 120-125 per kg, was not available in many shops in the retail markets.
Edible oil was hard to find in many retail shops as well.
Zia Uddin, a wholesale dealer in Santinagar area said, “Almost all brand companies, including Citigroup are supplying small amounts of packaged sugar. At the same time, many brand companies have reduced their edible oil supply. This has affected the entire market.”
Edible oil was being sold at Tk 187 per litre on Thursday in the retail market while a bottle of five litres of soybean oil sold at Tk906. Loose soybean oil sold at Tk 180-190 per litre while palm oil sold at Tk 145-150 per litre.
In the meantime, prices of most varieties of pulses have gone up this week. The price of pulses including yellow pigeon peas, black gram, and green gram increased by Tk 10-20 per kg than a week ago. Also, Chickpea sold at Tk 80-90 per kg on the day, up from Tk 75-80 per kg a couple of weeks ago.
However, prices of red lentils have decreased slightly this week. At different markets, red lentils sold at Tk 100-130 per kg on Thursday, down from Tk 105-140 per kg a week ago.
Prices of many local spices including ginger, garlic are also on the rise.
Local ginger sold at Tk 140-150 per kg, up from Tk 100-120 a week ago, while imported ginger sold at Tk 150-200 per kg on Thursday at the retail market.
Prices of local garlic increased by Tk 20-30 within a week to Tk 120-130 per kg, while imported garlic now cost Tk 140-150 per kg. Moreover, turmeric sold at Tk 220-250 per kg on Thursday, up from Tk 200-240 per kg one week ago.
