Onion, potato prices soar ahead of Ramadan

FE Team | Published: June 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Yasir Wardad
Prices of onion and potato marked a significant rise in just one day in the city's kitchen markets.
The syndication of importers and big traders is responsible for the unusual hike, officials and market insiders observed.
Meanwhile, traders attributed the hike to the incessant rain that caused supply shortage and hype of onion export price hike by the Indian government.
Onion was sold at Tk 34-40 (local) and Tk 33-35 (imported) per kg in the city on Monday ---a 15 per cent (local) to 40 per cent (imported) increase just in a day.
Potato price also shot up to Tk 24-25 per kg which was Tk 19-20 per kg on Saturday.
Md Shariful Hoque Mallik, a trader at Shyambazar in the city said that increased import cost is responsible for the price hike.
Another trader at the same market however, said rain has caused the price hike.
Azizul Hoque, a trader at Nowabganjbazar in the city said: "The electronic and print media news about the export price hike of onion by Indian government is mainly responsible for the price rise of the spice recently".
He said that there is no reasonable cause for raising price of onion until August as the local production is very good this year.
"Telecasting or publishing of news irresponsibly is causing the hike as the importers and big traders in the city take it as an excuse," he said.
A Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) official requesting anonymity said the Indian government in their country has taken measures to hold back their inflationary pressure.
"Under the measure they raised onion export price to highest $300 per tonne so that Indians can get onion at affordable prices," he said.
"It doesn't mean that the traders in Bangladesh are importing onion at US $300 now rather import cost is still less than $250," he said.
"Indian onion will cost highest Tk 28-29 per kg in Bangladesh including transportation and other charges even if the import cost soared to $300 per tonne," he said.
"But the price of import variety increased to Tk32-35 per kg across the country," he said.
"The importers are dominating the total market as the local onion price is also being increased by the traders", he said.
He said there is no reason for increasing price of potato as supply of the produce never depends on import and the country has a surplus production this year.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) potato production is likely to be 8.5 million tonnes and that of onion is 1.75 million tonnes in FY'14.
However, prices of chicken meat which fell on Friday last again witnessed a hike on Monday due to supply shortage caused by rain.
Chicken was sold at Tk165 (broiler) and Tk170-175(layer) per kg on Monday---a Tk10 hike at per kg in just two days, according to the key kitchen markets in the city.