Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin has said the government will allow onion import if prices do not decrease within four to five days.
He said this at a press conference held at the commerce ministry on Sunday. Commerce Secretary Mahbubur Rahman and other senior ministry officials were present there.
The adviser called the press meet in the wake of the sudden onion price hike in the last couple of days.
The Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC) recently suggested the government allow onion imports to control the rising prices of the widely-consumed item.
The commerce adviser told the briefing, "We are keeping a close eye on the onion market. There is sufficient stock in the country.
"New onions will be available in two weeks. If the prices do not come down in four to five days, approval will be given for importing onions."
He said 2,800 onion import applications had been submitted so far.
If 10 per cent of the applications were approved, the country would be flooded with onions, he said, adding the government was monitoring the situation to ensure that prices did not fall dramatically and farmers were not harmed.
Describing the sudden increase in prices as unreasonable, he said this had happened for multiple reasons - the end of the season, sudden heavy rains, and the loss of weight while drying out during storage.
Replying to a question on the influence of market syndicates, Bashir said, "There is no such information at this moment. A temporary shortage has occurred. We hope the crisis will be gone quickly."
"If a syndicate is operating, you [journalists] show us. If there is uncontrolled stockpiling, we have the authority to address it."
Bashir also said, "We have information that onions are being stockpiled across the border for exporting to Bangladesh."
When asked about the calls to withdraw import duties, he said, "We do not think there is a need to do that. The market will stabilise if import permits are issued. Everything will be fine if we allow imports."
He explained that before giving import permission, they would have to consider the overall economy, the agricultural economy, and the situation of farmers and consumers.
"It is definitely not rational if onion prices increase by Tk 40-50 within a few days.
Nothing special happened that could lead to this. Farmers do not have onions at this moment, and they have not benefitted from the increased prices."
Bashir said around 4.0 million tonnes of onions were produced last year, adding a portion of the harvest rots as they are not used or preserved.
He said, "We have distributed 10,000 high-flow machines across the country, which has somewhat improved onion storage. The current crisis is temporary, and it will be overcome."
Commerce Secretary Mahbubur said, "According to the information given by the agriculture secretary, we have about 0.35 million tonnes of onions. About 85,000 to 87,000 tonnes will arrive this month, followed by 0.25 million tonnes next month. We do not have any onion shortage."
He said onion prices had risen because of rainfall, while the prices of cooking ingredients stabilised a little.
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