Prices of bakery items soar significantly

Badrul Ahsan Prices of all types of bakery items soared by around 30 per cent over the last two months due to the high prices of the ingredients of these items, sector insiders said. Bakers, wholesalers and shopkeepers are blaming each other for the abnormal price hike of the items. The price hike has hit the middle and lower income group of people hard. Mohammad Jalal Uddin, President of Bangladesh Bread and Biscuit-O- Confectionery Prostutkarak Samity, told the FE that they have not yet increased prices of their items though they have planned to increase the same soon as the prices of flour, atta, cooking oil, sugar, egg etc have gone up significantly over the last 2-3 months. Mr Jalal said, "The prices of flour and atta soared by Tk 1,500 to 2,000 per 100 kg sack over the last 2 to 3 months whereas the prices of sugar, cooking oil and other ingredients also increased by over 10 to 15 per cent over the period." "We would buy flour at Tk 1,500 to Tk 1,800 per 100 kg sack but for the last 3 months we had to buy it at Tk 3,000 to Tk 3,500 which has forced us to decide to increase prices of our products immediately," he added. Mr Jalal however blamed the middlemen and the shopkeepers for charging an abnormal price to their customers anticipating the upcoming decision of the association. Iqbal Hossain Rana, General Secretary of the samity, said that due to the high prices of the components of bakery items, some manufacturers might have increased the prices of their products slightly but the association has not yet declared its decision of price hike. Meanwhile, shopkeepers claimed that high transportation cost and the wholesalers are responsible for the abnormal price hike. "Wholesalers have been charging us higher prices for all bread, biscuit and bakery items than those of 2 months ago," Zakir Hossain, a shopkeeper of city's Mohammadpur Krishi Market area said. "The transport cost of items has also increased remarkably after the government's move of price hike of fuel on September 18 this year, so we had to add this extra cost to the price of the items." While visiting different retail bakery and confectionery outlets of the city, it was observed that medium size bread was being sold at Tk 40 against its earlier price of Tk 30. At the same time different types of biscuit and other items were also being sold at 25 to 35 per cent higher prices compared to the prices of 3 months back. Shopkeepers said that many regular buyers were turning away from purchasing the items following the rise in prices. Sonia Biswas, a customer, expressed her resentment saying that she used to buy a packet of Captain brand chocolate biscuit at Tk 80 three months back; but now she had to buy it at Tk 110. "Quality of most of the bakery items has gone down over the couple of months," another customer Abdul Gani said while buying bread from a retail shop of Eskaton area in the city Friday. Preferring not to be named, a high official of City Group, the leading manufacturer of flour and atta, said, "Following the government's decision of scrapping deal with Ukraine 3-4 months back and lower production of wheat locally have pushed the prices of flour and atta up in the market." According to the sources of City Group, due to the lower quality of wheat supplied by the Ukraine, the biggest supplier of wheat of the country, the government has decided not to import wheat from the country. Ukraine supplied about sixty per cent of country's total import. "Immediately after the declaration of the government's decision, the local market of wheat became volatile and its price also went up significantly," the sources added.