As household incomes decline amid coronavirus pandemic, low-income people waiting in a queue under the scorching sun to buy onion and other essential items at subsidised prices from a truck, a TCB sales point, near the National Press Club in the city on Saturday — FE photo by Shafiqul Alam Prices of onion declined by Tk 10-20 a kg in the city on Saturday which traders attributed to release of onion by India which were stranded in the border since Monday morning.
Local onion was sold at Tk 80-100 and imported Indian onion at Tk 65-75 a kg in the retail market on Saturday.
The Indian government on September 19 allowed the onion-laden trucks into Bangladesh carrying 25,000 tonnes of onion, letters of credit (L/C) for which were settled before September 14.
According to the Customs offices in Hili, Benapole, Sonamoshjid, Bhomra and other land ports, more than 850 trucks with onions had been stranded in the Indian parts of the border since Monday last.
However, the Indian government on Sept 14 imposed an export ban on onion to tackle its internal market volatility which caused more than 100 per cent hike in onion prices in Bangladesh just in three days.
However, prices of the spice witnessed a decline at key wholesale markets like Shyambazar in Dhaka over the last two days.
Good quality local onion was sold at Tk 72-74 a kg, Indian onion at Tk 60-65 a kg at Shyambazar on Saturday morning, Narayan Chandra Saha, a trader, said.
He said prices were declining amid several measures taken by the government and the private sector.
He said quick opening of L/C for importing onion from other sources apart from India by some local traders worked a lot.
He said releasing of onion by India under settled L/Cs also left a positive impact.
He said demand also declined to some extent amid panic buying by the city dwellers between Monday night and Tuesday which helped reduce sale for now.
He said open market sale (OMS) by the government also helped ease the price.
"But import from other countries should be started quickly before end of stock of imported Indian onion", he said.
He said key hubs of local onion like Faridpur, Rajbari, Natore, Bogura, Kushtia, Pabna and Jhenidah should be brought under strict monitoring.
However, onion-laden trucks started entering Bangladeshi land ports from Saturday noon, said sources.
Many importers were, however, were apprehensive that the spices were rotting largely due to the six-day delay.
Md Yousuf, a Dinajpur and Kurigram-based importer, said his one truck of onion ( 25 tonnes) had been stuck up at the Indian part of Hili land port since Monday morning.
The delay might cause damage to 35-40 per cent of the onion amid lack of sunshine and air in time, he said.
However, Bangladeshi traders opened L/Cs for importing 79,000 tonnes of onion from Myanmar, Turkey, Egypt, the Netherlands until Thursday, according to the Plant Quarantine Wing of Chattogram.
The commerce ministry also said there is a stock of 0.56 million tonnes of onion in the country now when monthly demand is 0.2 million tonnes.
However, the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) continued its OMS programme through 275 trucks in the country including 40 in Dhaka city.
TCB was selling onion at a subsidised rate of Tk 30 a kg.
Bangladesh produced 1.91 million tonnes of onion this year.
The country also imported 0.55 million tonnes of onion in January-August period of this year, said the commerce ministry.
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