Garlic price shoots up to Tk 130 a kg

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Hussain Muhammad Ershad, chairman of Jatiyo Party, inaugurating Innotel, a business boutique hotel and sister concern of Baton Rouge in the city recently. Innotel Business Boutique Hotel Chairman HBM Zahidur Rahman and Managing Director Mashiur Rahman wer

Monira Munni
Price of garlic shot up 26.32 percent to Tk130 a kilogram in a period of one month at the retail market in the city, which traders blame on higher import cost.
The imported garlic sold in the range between Tk 90 and Tk 100 per kg last month, is now be traded at Tk 125 to Tk 130 per kg, according to the report of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Besides, the price of local variety of garlic, which was Tk 50 to Tk 75 per kg in April, has now gone up to Tk 80 to Tk 90 with 36 per cent rise, TCB said.
TCB prepared the report based on its survey of the city's Karwan Bazar, New Market, Hatirpool, Moulavi Bazar, Sutrapur, Fakirapool, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Shahjahanpur, Malibagh, Jatrabari, Shantinagar, Kochukhet and Mohakhali markets.
Imported garlic price went up by around 362 per cent while the local variety rose to 110 per cent in a year, according to TCB data.
The imported variety sold at Tk 22 to Tk 30 per kg and the local variety at Tk 36 to Tk 45 per kg in May 2009.
Recent price hike of garlic in India and China were mainly responsible for the rise in the local market, importers claimed.
Moulavi Bazar Traders Association General Secretary Golam Mawla said recent price hike in India and China has affected its price in the local market.
He feared that the price might increase further as the harvest of garlic ended one or two months ago.
"The garlic price was $1000 to $1100 per tonne just two months back, but it has gone up to around $1500 to $1600 now in China," Khandaker Babul, general secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan Agriculture Products Importers' Association told the FE Tuesday.
"As the price in China has gone up, traders are afraid of importing more garlic," Abul Kalam Azad, a garlic importer of Shyambazar said, adding that this is the reason why garlic price is now high.
Moreover, China began to store its product due to the high demand of garlic, which is now widely used on producing herbal products such as paste and pickles, he added.
"China will harvest new garlic at the beginning of July and then the price may come down to some extent," another importer said.
Traders said the country mainly depends on imported garlic as the local production is very low against the demand. This is why international price hike directly affects the local price.
The country produced nearly 0.144 million tonnes of garlic in fiscal 2007-08, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.