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Onion prices kept rising across the country on Tuesday with the item imported from Egypt and China becoming Tk 40-50 costlier a kilogram while the local variety price saw a Tk 10 increase.
Traders said that the prices of Egyptian and Chinese onions jumped in the city as their supply was getting thinner every day.
They said that imported onions from Egypt were mostly selling under the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh at Tk 45 a kilogram.
The local varieties were selling for Tk 240-260 a kilogram while the Egyptian varieties for Tk 190-200 in the open market.
Myanmar onions were retailing for Tk 220-230 while the Chinese commodity for Tk 170-180.
The customs intelligence on Tuesday also interrogated onion importers for the second day as part of their investigation into alleged money laundering and hoarding of the essential commodity by them.
But the intelligence agency did not find any sign of stockpiling of the item, it said.
The customs Intelligence investigation directorate of the National Board of Revenue interrogated a total of 43 onion importers in two days and said that if necessary the agency would interrogate wholesalers to know about hoarding of onion.
‘We do not want to blame anyone for the price hike of onions. We talked with the importers with the aim to bring down the price of the item in the market,’ said CIID director general Md Shahidul Islam on Tuesday.
The prices of onions shot up to Tk 55-65 a kilogram from Tk 23-40 in Bangladesh on September 14, as India fixed the minimum export price of the item at $850 a tonne on September 13.
On September 29, when India imposed a ban on onion export, the price hit Tk 120 a kilogram in Dhaka’s kitchen markets the following day, on September 30.
After the price spiral began the government started open market sale of onions through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
The TCB operation hardly had any impact on the market and onion price topped Tk 250 a kilogram across the country on November 15.
Country’s big business groups started importing onions from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey by air following a government request.
After the government initiatives, onion supply started to improve in the market with the prices being slightly down but after two to three days the prices have begun to rise again since November 20.
(NA)
