Agriculture Ministry sceptical about onion import

Business Report :
Prices of onions, which showed a slight decline recently, rose again from Wednesday as retail costs soared to Tk80-95 a kg in various kitchen markets of the capital.
The Commerce Ministry in the second week of this month sent a letter to the Agriculture Ministry to permit the import of onions.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi also declared they will import onions following further volatility as prices have already increased by 80-100% just in a month. Last week, both Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque and the Agriculture Secretary also announced to permit onion imports if prices keep skyrocketing.
Addressing the media, Dr Razzaque also recognized that onion output fell to 3.4 million tonnes in 2023 from 3.7 million tonnes in 2022.
The country has a stock of 1.8 million tonnes to meet the demand up to the beginning of next harvest. Razzaque said the government would take some more days to permit the import.
Asked, MoA additional secretary Rabindra Sri Barua said: “Onion prices declined by Tk5-10 a kg a few days back, which lessened our concern to some extent.” “But I’ve got reports that prices have started increasing again from Tuesday,” he told the media.
Ministry officials are scheduled to sit with Razzaque on Wednesday to take a concrete decision on onion import, said Barua. Meanwhile, Consumers Association of Bangladesh vice-president SM Nazer Hossain said the demand for effective market monitoring was still a far cry.
He said the seasonal onion varieties were traded by small farmers at Tk14-22 a kg in onion hubs during the February-April period.
The same is being traded now at Tk48-55 a kg by district wholesalers, Tk65-75 by Dhaka wholesalers and Tk80-95 by retailers.
Hossain also called for quick permission of onion import by the ministry as demand swells three to four times during Eid-ul-Azha.