The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh on Sunday started selling onion on the open market across the country at Tk 65 a kg. TCB officials said that the corporation would sell the item at 174 spots across the country. They, however, said sales could not be started in full swing from all the spots on the day as the item could not be supplied in the remote places on time.
The corporation has already imported 300 tonnes of onion from India and a good quantity of the item remains in the pipeline, they said.
The chief information officer of the TCB, Md Humayun Kabir, told New Age that distribution of the item among the dealers started on Saturday and most of the dealers in the capital started selling onion on the open market.
‘The item will be available at five spots in each city corporations and at two spots in each district town and the operation may continue the OMS sales up to next harvest of onion,’ he said.
The price of the item set at Tk 65 a kg, up by Tk 10 a kg from the previous OMS, as the import price went up in India, Humayun added.
The corporation had started selling onion on the open market at Tk 47 a kg in late August and early September as the price on the retail market spiralled to Tk 100 a kg from Tk 44-45 a kg during Eid-ul-Fitr.
In the late September, the TCB further started selling the item on the open market at Tk 55 a kg and continued up to Eid-ul-Azha.
After Eid the price witnessed a sharp increase to Tk 120 a kg from Tk 80-90 a kg.
The state-owned trading agency on Thursday decided for a further OMS of the item at Tk 65 a kg to contain the soaring price.
-With New Age input
