The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is set to make the import from Dubai--one of numerous sources open for the country--to sell it in the TCB sales drive at cut price, according to the agency document.
Of the volume, 58 tonnes in the first consignment has already reached Chittagong and will be delivered today (Tuesday).
This onion is being imported from a Dubai company named Golden Wings General Limited through a local company styled Sahanjheeb Limited, the TCB mentions in its note.
Currently, the TCB rations the mass-used spice item at Tk 50 per kg alongside other key essentials in the wake of price rises.
The widely consumed tube was still selling at exorbitant prices despite the taking of multiple steps to ease the volatile onion market-one of alternate spirals in prices of daily necessities.
On Monday, spot surveys on different kitchen markets in the capital, including Segunbagicha, Shantinagar, Kawranbazar, and Mohammadpur, found local varieties of the spice selling at higher prices ranging between Tk 190 and Tk 220 per kilo.
Local onion (old/new) was selling up to Tk 180 a kg while imported ones at Tk 150-160, according to the TCB data released on the day.
The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) has moved to identify hoarders involved in the price fixing. "We have already identified some such hoarders," DNCRP Director-General AHM Shafiquzzaman told at a programme held at its office on the day.
The prices of onions almost doubled within a day on Saturday on hearsay about India having extended its onion export until March 2024, augmenting woes of the commoners.
Annual local demand for onion is more than 2.5 million tonnes in the country. It needs some 0.40-0.45 million tonnes for the month of Ramadan alone, which is nearly one-fifth of the total consumption.
Onion production was 2.7 million tonnes, as of May 2023, by official count. But around 25 per cent of the output is lost out through rotting and other sorts of waste, leaving a deficit. The gap is being met with imports from Egypt, Turkey, Myanmar, China, Pakistan and India.
Meanwhile, our Chattogram correspondent adds: The port city of Chattogram has witnessed a shortage of onion at the Chaktai-Khatunganj business hub of the key essentials of the country.
Most of the godowns here are now almost empty of onion.
On Monday, wholesalers here were passing idle time with no adequate onion in their godowns at Khatunganj.
At Chaktai too, there is no adequate onion for sale.
The price of onion got hiked in wholesale and retail markets until Sunday.
Due to an increase in the price, the traders alleged, the buyers have bought surplus onion. As a result, the market demand for onion is low, they told the FE.
On Friday, Indian onion sold at Tk 150 per kg in the wholesale market of Chaktai, but it sold at Tk 200 a day later.
However, the wholesale price fall has no bearing on the retail market. Onion still retails at Tk 220-230 per kg.
Meanwhile, the district administration and the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection raided Chaktai, Khatunganj and Pahartali for the second day on Monday amid unrest in the market.
Two companies in Chaktai-Khatunganj were fined Tk 20,000. Again, two companies were fined Tk 40,000 in Pahartali market.
Abul Kashem, president of Chaktai Artaddar Samity, said, "There is no shortage of onion in the retail market unlike at wholesale outlets in Chattogram now."
Mohammad Idris of Chattogram Onion Importers Association said, "The onions coming from India are of the previous LCs. The government should quickly arrange onion import alternatively to normalise the market."
Chattogram deputy commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammad Fakhruzzaman said, "Punishment will be meted out to any hoarders of essential commodities with intent to raise prices by creating an artificial crisis."
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