Yet again prices of edible oils rise to add to hardship of the commoners already battered by general price rises on the volatile market, spot surveys show.
Onions, rice, wheat flour and sugar also showed pricier last week, for what many say speculation amid the global tensions.
Volatile edible-oil market witnessed further instability as many traders stopped selling soybean oil in loose form while many groceries didn't get their ordered bottled oils.
However, branded soybean oil sold at Tk 170-180 a litre in few groceries that had old bottles while in some shops loose soybean retailed at 184-185 a litre (Tk 195-200 a kg).
Many of the groceries the FE correspondent visited had no five-litre or one-litre soybean-oil jars, a few had five-litre ones but were selling at Tk 840-850.
Reaz Hossain, salesman at Bismillah Store at West Dhanmondi, said they didn't get bottled oils from dealers despite having settled an order five days back.
Dealers are saying that they are not getting oil from the refiners, he says, about what appears to be gambling on the market of essentials.
"We have now no one-litre or five-litre jar on our shelf for last three days," he adds.
The half-litre jars retailed at Tk 90 a jar, he said.
Faridul Hasan, an edible-oil wholesaler at Sadeq Khan Agricultural Market, says refiners have almost stopped issuing new sale orders (SOs), causing them to stop trading in loose soybean oil.
"We have some amount of super palm oil which is being sold to small- scale shop owners at Tk 170 a kg (Tk 156 a litre)," he adds.
And retailers are selling palm oil at Tk 165 a litre, he said.
The volatility on the edible-oil market has been persisting despite rising market monitoring by the government since last week.
The refiners had set new price of bottled soybean oil at Tk 180 a litre, loose soybean Tk 157 a litre and loose palm at Tk 150 a litre, which was set to be effective from March 1.
But traders started raising prices of edible oils, especially of loose oils, at their wish from February 26 on the excuse of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, said TM Rashed Khan, Assistant Director of the Department of Agricultural Marketing.
He said many traders sold bottled soybean even in loose form finding it more profitable. A high official at a leading refiner said both soybean and palm oil prices surpassed US $1800 a tonne in the last week of February, marking an all-time high.
He said the products they are now selling were imported in January, even at $ 1500 a tonne. "The government is still realising VAT in three stages despite an above- 100-per cent surge in edible oil prices on the global market in last one and a half years," he points out.
However, according to the Bangladesh Vegetable Oil Refiners and Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (BVORVMA), the government set 15-per cent VAT on soybean and palm oils at import stage, again in production (refining) stage 15 per cent and then in trading stage 5.0 per cent which was same before the beginning of the pandemic.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan says that apart from ensuring strict market monitoring, the government should immediately remove all kinds of taxes or VAT on edible oils for a certain period following the current global price rises and a war in Europe.
Bangladesh annually imports 2.2 million to 2.6 million tonnes of edible oils of which more than 95 per cent of the local demand is met through import.
However, onion prices increased further by Tk 10 a kg in a week as both local and imported varieties sold at Tk 60-Tk 70 a kg on Friday.
Finer and medium rice witnessed Tk 2.0-3.0 a kg further hike as Miniket sold at Tk 68-72 and BRRI dhan 28 variety at Tk 58-60 a kg on the day.
Coarse rice remained static at previous high of Tk 50 a kg in the city retail markets.
Loose maida (finer flour) sold at Tk 53-55 a kg, marking Tk 2.0-a-kg hike.
Loose sugar price also increased by Tk 2.0-3.0 a kg, selling at Tk 82-85 a kg, while packet sugar remained at previous high of Tk 85-95 a kg, according to groceries.
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