Supply disruption likely to fuel prices of Ramadan essentials

The ongoing shutdown has rippled through the transportation system in the country and public life has come to a halt. And this also has an adverse effect on goods transportation, most importantly transportation of perishable goods.

Product delivery from the ports has sharply declined due to the shortage of transport workers and vehicles.

Businesspeople fear the supply shortage may push up the retail prices of essential commodities and at the same time create a massive crisis during the month of Ramadan.

Thus transportation crisis is likely to emerge as a major challenge in keeping the already soaring prices of essential commodities under control as the government further extended the ongoing lockdown until May 5.

Traders fear a section of unscrupulous wholesalers and retailers might team up to artificially create a crisis in the market of onion, oil, lentils, date, sugar, garlic, ginger and chickpeas.

Talking to The Business Post on Thursday, importers concerned said they can’t bring their imported food items from ports or other parts of the country due to severe shortage of transport workers.

Onion importer Hafiz Ahmed said, “Due to shortage of transport workers, my goods are rotting at the port and in the meantime, panic-buying by the consumers is fanning the price hike of various commodities.”

Most items that are of high demand during Ramadan have already been imported, but they are stuck at port yards. As a result, there is a shortage of products in retail markets across the country, say traders.

The commerce secretary Md. Jafar Uddin, in corroboration of what the traders apprehand, told The Business Post on Thursday, “We have sufficient amount of goods in our stock but due to shortage of vehicles and workers, many of the imported goods now lay abandoned at the ports.”

 He also pointed out that a section of unscrupulous businessmen are indulged in unethical practice of price manipulation of essential commodities.

“We are taking necessary actions to make sure that there is ample supply of goods in the market,” he added.

According to a commerce ministry tally, the ministry has imported 29,971 metric tons of lentils in April alone and 15,000 tons of chickpeas were imported in March and April.

On the other hand, the government, too, has so far imported 9,222 tons of dates this year, which is 17 percent higher than that of the last year.

To ensure sufficient supply of essential commodities in the market, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) this year stocked essential commodities ten times higher than that of the immediate previous year.

Md. Humayun Kabir, Spokesperson of TCB said, “We have taken initiatives to sell oil, sugar, lentils, dates and onion across the country through our dealers to check price hike of these items in the retail market.”

/sh/nm/teb