The price of onion on Thursday further shot up to Tk 110 a kg on the retail market in the city ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. Traders said that the price of the item has been increasing due to excessive demand for Eid. ‘A supply shortage of onion has taken place in last couple of months as the production of the item hampered in India, the major importing source for Bangladesh, due to natural disaster. In the face of extreme shortage of Indian onion, the local item was the main support to the consumers but now the stock of the local onion is about to finish,’ Narayan Chandra Saha, an importer and wholesaler at Shambazar told New Age.
He said that consumers have started to buy additional quantity of onion before Eid which also created an additional demand.
Narayan also said that importers are not interested to import huge quantity of onion from India at high price as they are in fear about a market fall.
He said that not only the retail prices, the wholesale price of onion also has been increasing every day.
The wholesale price of onion increased by Tk 10 a kg. The local onion was selling at Tk 90 a kg while the item from India, Pakistan and Myanmar was wholesaling at Tk 80-Tk 85 a kg, Tk 75 a kg and Tk 85 a kg respectively on the day, Narayan said.
‘I think the wholesale prices of onion will increase to Tk 100 a kg before Eid,’ he said.
The prices of onion increased by Tk 15 a kg on the retail market and local item was retailing at Tk 100-Tk 100 a kg on Thursday while imported onion was retailing at Tk 95-Tk100 a kg.
Habibur Rahman, a retailer at Banasree on Thursday was selling local onion at Tk 110 a kg.
He said the day before yesterday, he sold the item at Tk 75 a kg but now forced to sell at Tk 110 a kg as the wholesale price has started to jump since Wesnesday.
Iqbal Anwar Faruque, a businessman, who came to Hatirpool kitchen market, said that the price hike was completely due to negligence of the government.
It may true that a supply shortage of the item is prevailing in the country but the abnormal high price of onion is not acceptable, he said.
Iqbal also said that due to lack of proper monitoring, a group of traders are gaining extra profits in the name of supply shortage.
The price of the item has been increasing continuously since Eid-ul-Fitr due to supply shortage and increasing price in India.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh started selling onion on open market across the country in late August and early September.
In August, the TCB sold a total of 200 tonnes of onion at Tk 47 a kg across the country and in September they set the price at Tk 55 a kg, up by Tk 8 from the previous price.
The TCB said that they will continue selling onion on open market up to October 14 in the domestic markets in a bid to ease price.
-With New Age input
