Soft demand drives down garlic wholesale prices

Wholesale prices of imported garlic slightly went down in the last couple of days as supply is higher than demand, traders said.

"The market is flooded with Chinese garlic. We cannot supply garlic to different destinations across the country due to transportation disruption worsened by blockade," Abul Kalam Azad, a big garlic importer, told the FE.

Currently, around 150 containers of imported garlic are still stuck in the seaport, he said, adding the imported price is around US$ 800 per tonne, but supply is much higher than demand.

Since trucks are torched during the political turmoil, which has pushed up transportation costs.

The trader said truck owners are avoiding long distance routes as Rajshahi, Feni, Syedpur, Barisal and Barguna.

"We can't keep this huge amount of garlic for long time, so we have to sell it. If we cannot distribute this item to different districts, the price may fall again," Mr Azad, also a wholesaler of Shyambazar, said.

The wholesale price is now at Tk 55 per kilogram and Chinese variety garlic that was Tk 60 last week.

The retail price of imported garlic was Tk 75 to Tk 90 a kg of imported garlic, which was sold at Tk 80 to Tk 90, according to the different kitchen markets in the city.  

The country produces 0.27 million tonnes of garlic annually against the demand of 0.48 million tonnes, according to the Department of Agriculture Extension data.

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