Cooking oil simmers amid volatility in onion prices

The past week saw severe volatile onion prices, spiking by 120 per cent, and escalating cooking oil costs, adding to the burden of households and prompting authorities to launch market raids.
Market insiders, however, alleged that traders profited millions before the crackdown began.
Between December 8 and 10, local onion prices surged 100-120 per cent after neighbouring India extended its export ban.
On December 10, kitchen price logs showed local and imported onions reaching Tk 180-240 per kilogram in Dhaka and elsewhere.
Surprisingly, this surge occurred during the peak harvesting season for seed onion "muirkata", according to Dhaka's West Dhanmondi grocer Juel Rana.
He said that wholesalers hiked prices by Tk 80-90 per kilogram overnight on December 9. However, onion prices started declining on December 12 due to increased muirkata supply and market intervention by government agencies.
By Thursday, new onions were selling for Tk 95-130 per kilogram, while older stocks (both local and Indian) fetched Tk 140-180, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh and the Directorate of National Consumers Right Protection.
The consumers right directorate conducted drives in 41 districts on December 13 and 14, fining 178 traders nearly Tk 1 million.
Apart from India, the agriculture ministry meanwhile approved onion imports from ten additional countries, including China, Egypt, Myanmar, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Qatar, Thailand, Turkey, the UAE and the USA.
Bangladesh has already imported nearly 0.7 million tonnes of onions this financial year, with India supplying 85 per cent of that volume, according to the Plant Quarantine Wing of the agriculture ministry.
The ministry expects Pabna farmers alone to harvest 0.126 million tonnes of seed onion within December. Natore farmers have also started harvesting and the price has dropped to Tk 90 per kilogram in the district.
This year, the ministry anticipates farmers to produce 0.82 million tonnes of seed onion out of a total of 3.5 million tonnes.
However, further woes emerged for commoners as loose soybean and palm oil prices climbed by Tk 5 per litre, reaching Tk 162-165 and Tk 152-155, respectively.
Despite a section of dairy farm owners and traders fixed beef prices at Tk 650 per kg, the prices remained unmoved at the previous rate of Tk 600-700 a kg depending on quality.

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