‘Onion import in couple of days’

Staff Reporter :
The government will decide on importing onion within a couple of days after monitoring the market situation.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce has sent a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture to import onion as the price of the item has increased at the consumer level in the local markets.

According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), onion is now selling at Tk70-80 per kg which was Tk 50 per kg a week ago, while it was sold at Tk 30 per kg a month ago. “I know that all middleand limited-income people are suffering. The price of onion should not be Tk 80 per kg. At the policy level, we are putting emphasis on the interests of our local farmers,” Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzaque said while talking to reporters at his secretariat office on Sunday. “We have discussed it at the highest level of policymaking. We are monitoring the market very closely. Insha’Allah, you will get a decision on whether we will import onions in 2 to 3 days,” he added.

Last week, the Agriculture Secretary Wahida Akhter said that the government was considering importing onions because of price hiking in the market.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, onion production in the country has increased by more than one million tonne in the last two years due to the government intervention.

“Onion production in our country is sufficient, but a section of traders want to make more profits stockpiling onion and creating artificial crisis in the markets. Onion prices have increased heavily over the past few days at the consumer level. Considering the present market price, we have informed the Ministry of Agriculture to import onion. Since the import permit (IP)issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, necessary steps will be taken in this regard. The Agriculture Ministry told us that they will take a quick decision after monitoring the market situation,” Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said in a separate programme on Sunday.

The import permit (IP) has mainly been kept off so that the country’s farmers get a fair price of onion, the Commerce Minister said adding that consumers are now struggling to buy onions in the market at high prices.

“Considering the volatile market price, we have no choice but to import onion. We hope, the market will stabilize after the import of onion,” Tipu Munshi said.
When asked whether the market is being monitored, he said, “The market monitoring is being done by the concerned officials including the Directorate of Consumer Rights Protection. Besides, monitoring is also being done to see whether sugar is being sold in the market at the fixed price.”