The prices of various local fruits, including bananas, guavas, and watermelons, have increased at an abnormal rate amid the expected high demand for Ramadan. However, the public opted not to buy as many fruits, decreasing prices.
The sellers said people are buying less due to the price hikes since Ramadan started. Thus, the supply of fruits has increased, and the demand has lessened. Overall, the prices of local fruits are down.
On Thursday, a dozen bananas of the chapa variety were sold for Tk 60-80 in Dhaka’s Segunbagicha, Shantinagar and Rampura kitchen markets. Small-sized bananas of the Sagar variety are sold at Tk 90-120 per dozen while the big-sized ones are sold at Tk 140-150 a dozen, and the Sabri-variety bananas are sold at Tk100-110 per dozen.
Kabir Ahmed, a banana seller in the Segunbagicha market, said, “The price has not decreased much in the wholesale market. However, due to low sales, there is a danger that many bananas may be wasted, so I am selling at low prices.”
He said, “Before Ramadan, I sold chapa bananas for Tk 60-80 a dozen. When Ramadan started, the price increased slightly to Tk 80-90. But now prices have shrunk again.”
Similarly, the price of sagar bananas decreased by Tk 20-30 per dozen compared to the first week of Ramadan. The retailers said that the cost of other types of bananas also fell at the same rate.
In Dhaka's markets, watermelons are sold by the kilogramme and by pieces. On Thursday, each small-sized watermelon cost Tk 150-300, while medium-sized ones cost Tk 400-600 each, and large-sized ones cost Tk 650-800.
Ali Hossain, a watermelon seller at Shantinagar market, said the prices have slightly decreased. However, the retail price remains unchanged due to the high number of rotten watermelons.
He said that medium-sized watermelons have to be bought at Tk 350-400 a piece from the wholesale markets. After adding rent, labour costs, and losses incurred from the rotten ones, they cannot be sold for less than Tk 500.
Akbar Hossain, a watermelon seller in Rampura market, said many farmers are harvesting malnourished and unripe watermelons from the fields and selling those off for a good price. Buyers are not interested in buying these. We then have to sell the unripe ones for very little or for free. We have to cover these losses by selling other fresh watermelons. Due to this, the average price of good watermelons hikes up.
Meanwhile, Guava is being sold in the markets at Tk 70-90 per kg. The sellers said that even at the beginning of Ramadan, the retail price of Guava was between Tk 90 and Tk 120 per kg.
Buyers spend Tk 25-30 per piece to buy small pineapples and Tk 40-50 per piece to buy large pineapples, which was Tk30-35 and Tk45-60, respectively, at the beginning of fasting.
Meanwhile, even though dates are not native to Bangladesh, demand doubles during Ramadan. As a result, the price of dates also increased at the beginning of fasting. However, the price of dates has mostly stayed the same. Dates are being sold in the capital at Tk100-150 per kg, higher than the price set by the government.
Common jahadi dates cost Tk290-300 per kg, which is the government-fixed price of Tk185 per kg. Besides, good-quality dates are sold at the rate of Tk1000-1800 per kg. They were sold at this price even at the beginning of Ramadan.
