Indian businessmen see their decision to stop exporting onions to Bangladesh as a befitting reply to the latter’s ban on export of hilsa fish to the former.
A year after Bangladesh banned the export of hilsa to India, on Monday Indian traders stopped exporting onions to Dhaka, reports Hindustan Times.‘There’s no point in exporting onions to Bangladesh, because there’s a high domestic demand and the government has fixed the minimum price. Moreover, why do you forget the hilsa experience?’ Pankaj Roy, member, Bharat-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce told HT.
The hilsa is a sea fish but it lays eggs in large rivers. The fry (young fish) then head for the sea, but are often caught before. The hilsa from Bangladesh’s Padma river is a much-relished delicacy in Bengali homes.
But in 2007, the Bangladesh government stipulated that no one could sell hilsa weighing between 500 gm and a kilogram for less than $6 and the floor price was $12 for anything more than 1.5kg. And then in July 2012, the country banned exports to India, citing high demand of the fish during Ramadan. The ban is still in force.
‘The government has fixed the export rate. We can’t sell at a lower price. With some exporters, it’s also likely that truckloads of onions are stranded at various land
ports. They’ll rot soon, so exporters are being forced to sell in the domestic market. Earlier, 1,000-1,500 tonnes of onions were exported to Bangladesh each day. The current figure is a mere 5 per cent of that,’ said
Debasish Saha of Krishna Traders, an onion
exporter.
Bangladesh, which depended on India for its onions, is now looking to Myanmar for supply.
India’s decision to stop exporting onions to Bangladesh has seen the price soar high in Dhaka and other areas.
The prices of onion — both imported and local — on average increased by 50 per cent to Tk 75 a kg and Tk 70 a kg respectively in a week.
A day before Eid-ul-Fitr on August 9, imported onion was being sold at Tk 45–Tk 48 a kg and local onion was being sold at Tk 50 a kg.
Now the imported onion was selling at Tk 75 a kg while the local onion was retailing at Tk
70 a kg.
-With New Age input
