Egg market volatile again

The hope for normalcy to return to the volatile egg market started to fade away as not a single egg has been brought in even after a month of the import permission, and direct egg sales by small poultries in Dhaka hit a snag.
Direct egg sales in the capital at the government-fixed rate -- an effort to counteract the absolute market control by corporate giants -- were halted on Thursday thanks to a lack of coordination and support by the authorities.
The Bangladesh Poultry Association (BPA) says sales will resume on Friday, while importers hope eggs will be imported after the upcoming puja festival.
However, the delays and loose market monitoring have left the local egg market in the red again.
The BPA, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP), launched the direct sale of eggs at Tk 12 each from Monday last week at 16 locations in Dhaka, aiming to stabilise the escalating egg prices.
However, this campaign came to an abrupt halt on Thursday after just three days.
Sabjal Ali, a local retailer at the Karwan Bazar, expressed his disappointment, saying, "I bought one dozen eggs from Karwan Bazar on Monday, and I came here today to buy another dozen, but there is no truck."
Later, Mr Ali purchased eggs at Tk 13.5 each from the Karwan Bazar grocery market.
He found it unusual for a government-supported programme to be discontinued after just three days.
Contacted, BPA President Suman Howlader told The Financial Express that there was a coordination issue in executing the campaign on Thursday.
"We grew weary of handling the work alone. Consequently, the closure occurred today (Thursday), and operations will recommence tomorrow."
The association launched the truck sales in front of the Karwan Bazar TCB building on Monday, with plans to gradually expand to 16 locations within Dhaka city.
Suman Howladar said eggs would be distributed at several prominent locations the following day. However, the operation of selling eggs through trucks at 16 spots incurred substantial expenses, and many farmers were unwilling to participate.
Last month, the government set the farm-level egg price at a maximum of Tk 10.50 per egg and Tk 12 at the retail level.
Conversely, egg prices increased by Tk 1.0 each over the past weeks, and now selling at Tk 13.5-13.6 each.
As the pricing structure could not be enforced, the government allowed 15 companies to import 150 million eggs from foreign sources.
However, no company has been able to bring in eggs yet.
Md Zakir Hossain, proprietor of Cheese Gallery, who received permission to import 10 million eggs, said that formal processing took three weeks to obtain the NOC from the Office of the Chief Controller of Imports and Exports and other formalities.
He said the company might not be able to import eggs from India before the end of the Durga Puja festival, as ports will remain closed for a few days during the festival.

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