Home ›› 02 Feb 2023 ›› Front
Though the production of mustard is increasing in the country day by day, price of its oil has not come down in the domestic market rather it keeps rising due to various reasons, including growing demand and drop in soybean oil imports.
At the same time, the government has undertaken a Tk220 crore project to boost the mustard production. But mustard oil price is increasing day by day. Now it is beyond the reach of the low income people.
Once mustard oil was the first priority of the country’s consumers, but in the 1990s, soybean oil grabbed a large portion of the market. Now palm oil is mostly-consumed oil in country. Mustard oil is the third or fourth choice due to its high price.
The price of mustard oil went up by Tk100 per litre in the retail kitchen market in last one year. Now it is being sold at Tk360 per litre on average.
This price is almost twice compared to soybean oil and more than double compared to palm oil. As it is produced in the country, the price of this oil should be relatively low.
Soybean oil is being sold at Tk180 per litre on average and palm oil at Tk150 per litre in the retail market.
Consumers claim that mustard oil is selling at a price the common people cannot afford these days. Half of a worker’s daily wage is spent on buying one litre of oil. A low-income person can buy about 8 kg of rice at the price of one litre of mustard oil.
According to the Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) data, good quality loose mustard oil sold at Tk240 per litre in 2018. Its price increased to Tk243 per litre at the end of 2019. In the year of 2020, the price of mustard oil decreased slightly and sold at Tk231 per litre.
In the next year, mustard oil price increased by Tk30 to Tk260 per litre. Due to a shortage of supply, the price rose by Tk70 to Tk360 per litre in May 2022 from Tk290 in April.
Mustafizur Rahman, a retailer at Segunbagicha kitchen market said, earlier middle and high income people used to consume mustard oil. But now only high-income people can afford it. Brand and non-brand producers raised the price of mustard oil cashing in on a shortage of other edible oils, he added.
According to a 2015 report of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC), the production and marketing companies made a maximum profit of 137 per cent from mustard oil, which was quite unusual compared to other edible oils.
The report said excluding the price of oil cake obtained as a by-product, production cost of mustard oil was Tk 87 per litre. The oil price reached Tk97 including the price of bottle.
However, one litre of mustard oil sold at Tk 175-230 in the market depending on the companies.
At that time, the price of mustard was Tk55 per kg while the price of mustard was Tk63 per kg in last season. As a result, the price of mustard increased by 14 per cent at this time.
But the price of mustard oil rose by 63 per cent. At that time, oil was sold at Tk 220 per litre, which has increased by Tk 140 to Tk 360 a litre at this time.
Market insiders said there are several reasons for price hike of mustard oil, on the one hand, the production of mustard is very less compared to the demand for edible oil, on the other hand, the market of mustard oil like soybean has also been grabbed by corporate companies. Apart from this, due to decrease in import of soybean oil, the mustard oil market has come under pressure.
The local production and import data showed that there is a demand of about 4.5 million tonnes of edible oil in the country. According to the BBS data, 3.72 million tonnes of soybean and palm oil were imported last fiscal year.
Besides, 1.3 million tonnes of oilseeds were imported from which 0.7 million tonnes of edible oil have been produced.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the production of mustard increased by 3.29 per cent to 4.09 lakh tonnes in the fiscal year 2021-22 from 3.96 lakh tonnes in FY2020-21. In FY2019-20, mustard production was 3.58 lakh tonnes and 3.11 lakh tonnes in FY2018-19.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) data, the target for mustard cultivation was set at 6.70 lakh hectares of land in the current season. Mustard has been cultivated on 7.97 lakh hectares of land. This season 9.38 lakh tonnes of mustard can be produced. Last year mustard was cultivated on 5.91 lakh hectares, and the country produced 8.24 lakh tonnes of mustard.
A 5-year project was launched in July 2020 with the target of mustard cultivation on 1.85 lakh hectares of land. The project has been undertaken at an estimated cost of Tk222 crore. The government plans to produce 2.6 million tonnes of mustard oil through the implementation of this project.
