Ruma Akhter, an employee of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, could not believe her ears yesterday when a trader at the capital’s Karwan Bazar asked Tk 104 for a kilogram of onions.
It is peak harvest season, but the price of onion has soared by Tk 10 per kilogram at the capital’s kitchen markets over the last three days.
The prices of onion have shot up despite adequate supply, according to a Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) report -- laying bare the extent of market manipulation by a section of dishonest traders.
India’s Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh says today in New Delhi
The director general of the Directorate of National Consumers Right Protection says
Prices of onion increased by Tk 100 or more per kg overnight as traders began stockpiling following the news that India had extended a virtual restriction on its export.
Retailers were selling the homegrown variety of onion at Tk 200 a kg at Karwan Bazar today, compared with Tk 130 on Thursday
Onion set prices have doubled in Bangladesh, dashing the hopes of the inflation-hit people for an immediate reduction in the prices of the key cooking vegetable through the cultivation of early winter varieties.
Onion prices at wholesale and retail markets in Bangladesh rose yesterday after India set a minimum price of $800 per tonne on exports of the bulb.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi has said he could not predict exactly when onion price will come under control in the country.
The wholesale onion markets in the capital see the low turnout of buyers as the price of the daily essential has gone beyond the purchasing capacity despite the government’s mechanisms to cool down the overheated market.
As onion prices spiral out of control fuelled by a supply shortage, a huge amount of rotten onion was found to be dumped in Chaktai canal adjacent to Karnaphuli River.
Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun in the parliament claims that the onion price has come under control at present.
Claiming that the hike in the onion price is a planned one by a syndicate, a consumer rights body urges the government to take immediate steps to arrest the skyrocketing price of the cooking ingredient.
