Staff Correspondent/Sourav
Onion is being sold at Tk 160 per kg in the retail market showing no sign of improvement in bringing down the price. There is not much difference in the prices of onion between retail and wholesale markets. Onion was sold at Tk 135 per kg on Tuesday at Shyam Bazar in the capital.
The price of per kilogram of onion increased by Tk 20 per kg on Tuesday. In the beginning of September, price of onion was Tk 50 to 52 per kg in the capital. The price of imported onion has also increased. In the retail market yesterday, the price of onion was Tk 140-145. The Commerce Ministry is expecting the arrival of onion from Turkey and Egypt next week and this will bring down the onion price.
“Consumers are being cheated in the name of low supply and high import cost of onion. The average cost of onion imported from Myanmar is Tk 34 per kg, and the price of per kg onion can in no way exceed Tk 50,” said CCS Executive Director Palash Mahmud. According to Conscious Consumers’ Society (CCS) research, consumers lost Tk 3,1793,650,000 over the last four months for the seemingly artificial crisis of onion and the price hike in the country.
The organisation put forward a set of proposals to resolve the current crisis in onion market. The suggestions include conducting drives against syndicate of dishonest traders responsible for the price hike and fixing the highest possible price for onion for a certain period. Onion prices in the retail market have increased by Tk 40 per kg, which is an average Tk 6 per day.
The onion market has been witnessing a turmoil for more than a month in the wake of the stoppage of exports of onion by India. “We have to be self-reliant in production of any commodity, including onion,” says an onion importer Abdul Bari. Importers say Meghna Group, City Group and S Alam Group are likely to import onions from Egypt and Turkey. They said that no ship come directly to Bangladesh from any of the countries. They have to a make a transit in the Singapore port. Therefore, it takes at least 20 days for a ship to reach the port of the country. That too will also be possible if the government urges the Singapore port to release the ship faster.
In this regard, General Manager of City Group Biswajit Saha said, “We have received approval to import onion from Turkey. Already our onion has reached the port of Turkey. They are to leave the port today. Accordingly, onion will arrive at the port of our country on November 20-21.” According to government data, the demand for onion in the country is 24 lakh tonnes with locally=produced onion meeting the demand for 16 lakh tonnes.