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Green chilli prices heat up volatile kitchen market
Prices of rice and other essential ingredients remained high across the capital over the week, but onion prices slightly reduced due to government initiatives.
Green chilli prices also increased from last week by Tk10-20 per kg, selling from Tk190-220 per kg over the week, compared to Tk170-210 per kg from the week before.
Retailers said that they sold a kilogram of BR-28 rice at Tk52-55, miniket at Tk56-65 per kg, coarse variety of Najirshail at Tk45-50 a kg and fine variety at Tk60-65.
These varieties sold at Tk40-60 per kg a week ago.
Md Ripon, a rice wholesaler at Malibagh kitchen market, blamed the high prices of supply scarcity.
“We, the middle-income people, are struggling to make ends meet and cover our household expenses as incomes have reduced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If the government takes stern actions then these traders would never dare destabilize the market,” said Shammi Akter, a teacher from Banasree.
The Ministry of Food, after a meeting with traders and stakeholders, on September 29, fixed the prices of rice for the millers for the first time ever, aiming to keep the most essential item market stable.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that prices of rice had increased a lot in a week which was totally unexpected. “It is a bad sign,” he added.
“In the market, we found that a group of unscrupulous traders had kept a lot of paddy and rice stored in about 50 closed mills,” he said. No one had informed the authorities about the issue earlier, though many of the millers knew that.
Visiting several kitchen markets in the capital including Malibagh, Mogbazar, Rampura and Karwanbazar on Saturday, this correspondent found that onion prices had slightly reduced by Tk5-10 per kilogram from last week.
Local onions sold for Tk80-90 a kg and imported onions for Tk65-80 a kg, compared to Tk85-100 a kg and Tk75-85 per kg respectively from last week.
They were selling at wholesale markets at Tk75-80 per kg for local ones and Tk60-70 per kg for imported ones.
In the middle of September this year onion prices shot up by Tk30-50 per kg after the export ban was announced in India on September 14. Local onions immediately sold for as high as Tk120 per kg, even though it retailed below Tk35 per kg even in August. Last year the price also increased as high as Tk 300 per kg after the ban of onion export in India.
However, in an attempt to curb the onion price hike, the government took several initiatives, such as selling the item in open market sale (OMS) across the country at Tk30 per kg, selling them online through selective e-commerce platforms at Tk36 per kg, withdrawing the 5% import duty on the bulb, intensifying market monitoring to prevent its price manipulation and import onions from other countries such as Egypt and Turkey.
Meanwhile, ginger and garlic prices remained high, as imported ginger was retailing for Tk220-250 a kg and local ginger at Tk160-190 a kg.
Local garlic was retailing at Tk100-120 a kg and imported garlic at Tk90-100 a kg.
In the wholesale markets, the four items were selling for less by Tk5-10 per kg.
Unpacked soybean oil was retailing at Tk90-95 per litre, bottled soybean oil at Tk108-110 per litre and palm oil at Tk85-86 a litre.
Among vegetables, aubergines were selling for Tk70-80 a kg, tomatoes for Tk120-140 a kg, papayas for Tk40-45 a kg, beans for Tk80-85 a kg, and cucumbers for Tk40-45 a kg.
Green chillies were sold for Tk190-220 a kg in retail markets.
(DT)
