Ugly drama with the onion price

The price of onion increased up to Tk 250 a kilogram on the kitchen markets in Dhaka city overnight on Saturday following an Indian ban on exports of the item.

The price of the essential commodity has been increasing every hour since Friday as the news of imposing the export ban by India was spreading.

Market analysts termed the sharp rise of onion prices as robbery saying that such dishonest moves from businesses to make excessive profit should not be treated as business.

The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection launched drives in the city markets to keep the price of onion stable but the move of the directorate hardly impacted the market.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade under the Indian Commerce and Industry Ministry in a notification on Thursday amended the export policy of onions, prohibiting its export till March 31, 2024.

The prices of the commodity witnessed a sharp rise on Friday and reached Tk 110-150 a kilogram overnight in the Dhaka markets.

On Friday, traders started to increase the price of onion and it reached up to Tk 250 a kilogram in the city markets on Saturday noon.

The price of the local variety of onion increased to Tk 230-250 a kilogram from Tk 120-130 a kilogram while the imported item increased to Tk 190-200 a kilogram from Tk 90-110 a kilogram in the past 24 hours.

Several shoppers in the kitchen markets in the city on Saturday were seen expressing their anger over the sudden price hike of onion in the local market and blamed lack of government monitoring for the hike.

Doubling the price of onion overnight should not be treated as a trade, but rather it was a robbery by a group of traders.

The move of a group of dishonest traders over the onion price proves that there is a lack of good governance in the business sector.

It should not be accepted that profit-mongering businesspeople will set the prices of commodities as per their will.

The illegal hoarders and robbers in disguise of traders should be suspended for doing the same job.

We cannot let such robbers do unethical business in the country, where there is a Constitution and laws to protect people.