Protect citizens from market manipulators ahead of Ramzan

A section of unscrupulous traders has been trying to make the basic commodity market unstable by creating a syndicate after the international prices of essentials went up. Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said government agencies are working to put an end to market manipulation. The minister is hopeful that the country will avail of a loan from the International Monetary Fund, which will help the government build a safe stock of foreign currency.
Farmers of the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA) sought government intervention to fix the price volatility of broiler chicken and eggs across the country. The farmer leaders said that currently, the production cost of broiler chicken per kg is Tk167, whereas farmers are selling it at Tk190-200. However, chicken meat is being sold in the Dhaka markets at a price of up to Tk240. On the other hand, the production cost of each egg is Tk11.71, whereas the farmers are selling at Tk9.45. This is not a reasonable price either. To resolve this situation, the farmers demanded government interference to fix a reasonable price for chicken and eggs.
In the post-Covid period, people were dissatisfied with the increasing prices of eggs and chicken while prices of all commodities were on the rise due to the Russia-Ukraine war. Many farmers have stopped production due to a lack of fair prices. Currently, 95,523 farms are operational out of 1.58 lakh farms and the rest have been shut down, racking up losses. As a result, the daily production capacity of chicken has decreased from 5,273 metric tonnes to 4,219 metric tonnes. Thus, meat production has decreased by 25.71 per cent.
Market price adjustment is utterly important to stop manipulation. When Ramzan is approaching, high inflation is pushing a growing number of middle-income people below the poverty line and poor people to become vulnerable. It is the duty of the concerned authority to protect the citizens from the market manipulators’ excessive profiteering.