High transport costs drive veg prices up

FE Report | Published: April 22, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Prices of summer vegetables are showing uptrend even during the peak season due to high transport costs, traders say.
According to market experts, summer vegetables usually start arriving in the market from March when their prices remain high, but the prices begin falling from the second week of April.
But there is no sign of decline in prices this year. Most of the summer vegetable items are being sold between Tk 40 and Tk 60 per kg in the city for last one month, traders said.
Different summer vegetables were sold between Tk 25 and Tk 50 per kg in the corresponding period of last year, they added.
Traders in city's different wholesale markets said transport costs are much higher this year compared to that of last year, resulting in price hike.
Transport costs went up after the BNP-led 20-party alliance enforced a countrywide indefinite blockade on January 6 this year that continued for three months.
During the period, the country's transport system was severely disrupted. Few truck and covered van owners continued their operation, but fare was almost 150 per cent higher than normal days, according to traders.
Even though the political situation has returned to normalcy, transport costs are still higher, said Md Ashraful, a vegetable trader at Beribadh adjacent to Hazaribagh area, told the FE.
Truck fare from Bogra to Dhaka was Tk 25,000-Tk 26,000 in February which came down to Tk 16,000-Tk 17,000 now, he said, adding that it is still higher compared with Tk 10,000 during the pre-blockade period.
Truck fare from Rangpur to Dhaka was Tk 28,000-Tk 30,000 in March which declined to Tk 18,000-Tk 20,000 now. It was Tk 13,000-Tk 13,500 in the corresponding period of last year.
Md Abdul Latif, president of Karwan Bazar Kanchamal Aratdar Baboshayee Samity, an association of vegetable wholesalers in the capital, said the prices of vegetables declined by Tk 2-3 per kg in the wholesale market this month, but it is still higher compared to that of last year.
He said the prices will further go down in the coming days as both transport costs and farm level prices of crops are gradually declining.
Agri-economist Prof Gazi M Jalil said farmers are plucking a huge volume of pointed gourd, brinjal, snake gourd, sponge gourd, ridge gourd, long bean, colocacia stem, pumpkin across the country and supply is normal.
"But prices are much higher in the city compared to that of farm level," he said.
Bogra farmers are selling pointed gourd at Tk 14-16 per kg which is selling at Tk 30-32 per kg at Karwan Bazar wholesale market, Mr Jalil added.
Brinjal price is Tk 12-14 per kg at farm level in Narsingdi which is sold at Tk 24-25 at wholesale markets in Dhaka and Tk 35-40 per kg at city's different retail markets.
Tomato was traded at Tk 8-10 per kg at farm level in Rajshahi last week which was sold at Tk 20-22 per kg at Karwan Bazar, he said.
Apart from hike in transport costs, he said, involvement of middlemen and extortion are also responsible for higher prices in vegetables in the city.
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