FE Report
Prices of green chilli further shot up by 60-70 per cent in a week due to heavy rain that disrupted supply-line and damaged many crop fields in the chilli growing hubs, said traders.
Prices of some vegetables and 'garam masala' (spices) marked rise, onion prices declined slightly while most of other commodities maintained static trend Friday.
Green chilli prices hit Tk120-130 per kg in the kitchen market on Friday, which was Tk70-80 per kg respectively on Tuesday, according to the retailers in the city's kitchen markets.
Md. Afzal, a retailer at Nowabganjbazar said downpour in the last couple of days damaged chilli fields in the different parts of the country which caused a supply crunch.
"Moreover, rising demand in the Ramadan has caused such price-leap," he said.
"I've bought chilli from Karwan Bazar wholesale at Tk105-107 per kg today (Friday), which was Tk 60-62 per kg a week before," he said.
Md Abdul Latif, president of Karwan Bazar Kanchamal Arat Baboshayee Samity, an association of wholesale traders of the city said per truck (nearly 12 tonnes) chilli from Kishoreganj charged Tk 1.08 million for last two days, which was below Tk 0.6 million last week.
"The prices of green chilli usually increased in the rainy season", he said.
He said chilli plants in many districts including Kishoreganj, Bogra, Jessore, Rangpur have been ruined by the recent downpour which caused the price hike.
The incessant rain also affected the supply-chain of ridge-gourd, teasle-gourd, tomato, snake-gourd and sponge -gourd and as a result, the prices further increased by Tk10-15 per kg.
Prices of onion witnessed see-saw movement over the week and it increased by Tk1-2 per kg on Wednesday and again reduced by the same amount on Friday, according to key kitchen markets.
However, local varieties of onion were sold at Tk 40-44 per kg on the day and imported varieties at Tk 35-40 per kg on the day.
Prices of most of 'garam masala' items including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds increased by Tk 80-150 per kg recently, according to the kitchen markets.
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