Lentil prices are suddenly going up
Business Report :
After high prices of eggs and onions, now the price of lentils has increased in the capital’s kitchen markets.
According to information from various kitchen markets, prices of all types of lentils have increased by at least Tk5 per kg in retail this week.
The prices increased at a time when low-income and lower-middle income brackets were unable to afford fish, meat, eggs, and other daily essentials.
After visiting different kitchen markets in the capital, it was seen that the prices of three types of lentils — coarse, medium and fine — have hiked by Tk5 per kg in retail.
Coarse variant of lentil is being sold at Tk95-Tk100 per kg, which was Tk90-Tk95 last week.
The medium variant is being sold at Tk115-Tk120 per kg, which was Tk110 per kg last week, while the fine variant retailed at Tk135-Tk140 per kg, which was Tk130-Tk135 last week.
State-owned agency Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) also found the same picture in their daily market analyses.
According to the TCB, the prices of coarse and medium lentils have increased by 2.63% and 4.44% respectively since last month.
However, prices of other pulses like moong, anchor, and chickpeas remained stable in the kitchen market and were being sold at Tk95-Tk135 (based on variant), Tk70-Tk75, Tk80-Tk100 (based on variant) per kg respectively.
Apart from unpacked lentils in the kitchen market, packaged lentils were also available in the supermarkets and sold at Tk145-Tk170 per kg based on brands.
Kamal, a salesperson of Mayer Doya Traders at the capital’s Karwan Bazar, said that the price of lentils was slightly higher than last week, as prices of all types of lentils hiked by Tk5 per kg.
“We do not know why it increased.
We have to buy at a higher price from the dealers so we are selling at increased prices.
But there is no shortage of supply and the prices of other lentils did not hike,” he added.
However, importers said that the prices of lentils in the market had already hiked due to the increase in the cost of opening letters of credit (LC) for its imports.
Jahid Hossain, joint-secretary of Bangladesh Daal Bebosayee Samiti, said that now the cost of import has increased again for which the price of lentils is a bit higher.
“While the price of lentils was $900 per tonne in the world market, it is now more than $1,000, which has increased import costs.
Moreover, the complexity of opening the import LC still remained,” he added.
However, there is no shortage of supply in the market and there is less chance of major volatility, he added.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), the per capita daily demand of pulses is 45 grams, so, the total demand in the country is about 2.6-2.7 million tonnes annually including all types of pulses.
However, the average production in the country is 900,000-1 million tonnes, meaning there is a shortage of about 60% of pulses every year and Bangladesh needs to import 1.7 million tonnes of pulses.
Meanwhile, Samiti said that the actual annual demand of pulses in the country is 4-4.5 million tons and lentils have the highest demand among them, about 2-2.5 million tonnes annually.
Once, Bangladesh imported more from Syria, Turkiye, and India. But currently the country imports more from Australia and Canada, Nepal. Currently, Bangladesh is the sixth largest producer of lentils, according to the FAO.
