The government has decided to import onion by cargo flight on an emergency basis from tomorrow.
Commerce secretary Dr. Zafar Uddin on Friday disclosed the decision, saying that the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) would import onion from Turkey while several private companies will import the daily essential from Egypt, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.
“Starting from Sunday, imports of onion on emergency basis by cargo flights will continue until the market turns into a normal situation”, said the commerce secretary.
He also informed that the government already has sent a deputy secretary of the government to Turkey and another to Egypt for the purposes of onion imports.
Meanwhile, onions, which are being imported through the water ways, are also on way to Bangladesh and will reach home very soon.
The commerce secretary informed that the initiatives of onion imports have been taken with a view to keeping the onion prices market normal.
“Immediately after the import of the onions, these would be supplied to the market within the shortest period of time,” he said, adding that transportation of onion in Teknaf and Chattogram ports was interrupted due to cyclone Bulbul.
Expressing hope that the onion price will come down soon, he said different law-enforcement agencies as well as intelligence agencies are also working for the purposes.
Cconsidering low cost and easy transportation, onion is imported usually from India. But India has imposed a ban on the onion import due to floods in its different states.
Besides, Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Commerce Tofail Ahmed, assured that the onion price would come down soon as around 50,000 tonnes of onion are being imported to meet the crisis.
He made the disclosure on Friday during his visit to the cyclone Bulbul affected areas in Bhola district.
During the visit, he distributed relief materials among the affected people.
“Different countries of the world are facing onion crisis this year. The government has taken initiatives to import onion from several countries, including Egypt, Turkey and Myanmar,” he said.
He said it is not possible to control the market by creating pressure on the business community. “We will have to take lessons from the incident,” he added.