The continued price hike of vegetables on the city market in the last two weeks has aggravated the sufferings of consumers, who are already affected by the high prices of other essential commodities.
Many consumers at different retail markets said on Tuesday that greengrocers had increased further the prices of vegetables, like green papaya, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, pointed gourd, snake gourd, aubergine, teasel gourd, and okra over the past one week, claiming a supply dearth caused by rain.
They said the prices of almost all vegetables had been doubled from that of 15 days ago.
On Tuesday, a number of consumers at Hatirpool and Polashi markets said there was almost no vegetable in the market that could be bought for less than Tk 40 per kilogram.
Mahmood Hasan at Polashi Bazar said, although the greengrocers had increased the prices claiming a supply shortage of vegetables, no such shortage of vegetables could be seen at the market that justified doubling the prices.
He said that every time the traders raised the price of an item, they gave a lame excuse in defence of the hike.
Abdul Halim at Hatirpool Bazar said, ‘How do the people of the fixed income group like us manage their livelihood, if the vegetable prices increase so erratically? We are already paying through the nose for other essential commodities, like rice, edible oil, and sugar.’
Halim censored the government for having no market monitoring system to control the essential commodity prices.
He was angry at the price hike and went away buying just a kilogram of potato.
At the Hatirpool kitchen market on Tuesday, aubergine, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, long bean, okra, and green chilly was sold at Tk 40 per kg, posting a rise ranging from Tk 5 to Tk 15 over the past two weeks.
Teasel gourd at the market was sold for Tk 30 per kg and papaya for Tk 15, up by Tk 5 over the same period, while pointed gourd was sold for Tk 35 per kg, up by Tk 10.
The wholesale prices of different vegetables also had increased by Tk 2 to Tk 15 per kg at Karwan Bazar over the past two weeks.
It will take at least two weeks for the vegetable prices to come down, if there is no rain during the period, said vegetable wholesalers at Karwan Bazar.
They said the non-stop rainfall all over the country in the past two weeks affected the production of vegetables and pushed the prices up.
Vegetable wholesaler Jamal of Karwan Bazar said the supply of vegetables from different regions
of the country had been halved over the rainy period.
‘I hope the supply will increase within the next 15 days as the weather is going to be dry,’ he said.
He blamed the retailers for increasing the prices at will to maximise their profits.
-With New Age input
