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Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Friday said it would not be possible to bring down the price of onion below Tk 100 a kilogram immediately.
However, wholesalers at capital’s Shyambazar wholesale market at a meeting on Thursday night set the minimum wholesale price of onion at Tk 55 a kilogram and maximum Tk 90 a kg depending on varieties.
According to the decision of the meeting, wholesale price of onion imported from Egypt, China and Turkey would be Tk 55-60 a kg, onion imported from Myanmar at Tk 80-85 a kg and the price of local varieties would be Tk 90 a kg.
Wholesalers said they were forced to set the wholesale prices of onion as supply shortage of the item made the market instable and traders had been facing mobile court frequently.
Although the association of wholesalers set the wholesale price on Thursday, many of the traders at Shyambazar traded onion at high prices breaching the decision.
New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported that commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Friday said the government was trying to bring down the price of onion in the local markets but it would not be possible to get the commodity at less than Tk 100 a kilogram immediately.
The price would come down when the local onion would hit the market at the end of the month, the minister told reporters after a meeting with the owners of brick kilns at a hotel in Rangpur city.
Tipu Munshi also said 50 thousand tonnes of onion from Egypt were expected to reach the country soon and then the price of the item might go down in local markets.
The price of onion started to increase from mid-September and it shot up to Tk 150 a kg in the last week of October.
The prices of onions still remained high and the local variety of the spice was retailing at Tk 130-135 a kg while the onions imported from Myanmar were selling for Tk 120-125 a kg on Friday.
The price of onion started rising in Bangladesh after India on September 13 set the minimum export
price of the item at $850 a tonne.
The price of the commodity increased by Tk 15-20 to Tk 55-65 a kilogram in Bangladesh on September 14, the next day, depending on the variety.
On September 29 when India imposed a ban on onion export, the price hit Tk 120 a kilogram the following day in Dhaka’s kitchen markets.
The price came down to Tk 70-90 a kilogram in the second week of October as traders started importing the item from Myanmar and Egypt.
In the third week of October, the price started rising again.
Tipu Munshi on October 14 claimed the prices of onions would come down at the end of October.
He said India might lift the ban on onion export at the end of October and then the prices of the item would come down.
(NA)
