Hoarding, devaluation of taka, extortion, ineffective monitoring responsible: Ramadan greeted with ritual price hike
Staff Reporter :
Targeting the Ramadan, unscrupulous businessmen have started stockpiling to create artificial crisis of essential commodities. Consumers now fear prices might be inflated further during Ramadan like the previous years.
The prices of products like chickpeas, dried peas, dates, and soybean oil – that are commonly consumed in Ramadan- have already increased in Dhaka and Chattogram in a less than two months before the Ramadan.
Market experts said as the Letter of Credit (LC) has to be opened 4 to 5 months before the start of Ramadan for importing those goods. Some of the entrepreneurs especially mid-level businessmen could not open LCs due to dollar crisis.
Bangladesh is in the third position among nations, which are reliant on food imports, said the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Likewise, some traders stockpiling the goods are also responsible for the supply shortage of daily essentials. Devaluation of the taka against the US dollar, extortion on highway, less effective market monitoring are also extends the fear of further price hike during the upcoming Ramadan, they added.
Bangladesh has been witnessing a gradually worsening shortage of the American greenback since the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.
Besides, the taka has lost 28 percent of its value against the dollar since February 2023, making imports significantly costlier.
Traders in Chattogram’s Khatunganj wholesale market said each kg of chickpeas now sells for Tk 82 to Tk 90, a rise of around Tk 15 in a month. Dried peas now cost Tk 67-70 a kg, a rise of Tk 5-Tk 7.
At Khatunganj, compared to last year, the price of dates have increased by 60-90 per cent, depending on the variety, it is seen.
It’s also alarming that the stern warnings by the government and mobile courts have not been able to check the prices of rice and potatoes, as well as oil, sugar, onions, fish, beef, eggs, and poultry products in recent days.
Prices of all types of rice increased across the country by Tk6-8 per kg in the first half of January of the New Year.
It is alleged, illegal hoarding by rice mill owners and middlemen is responsible for the unusual increase in the price of the staple despite ample stocks.
Additionally, in January 2024, potato prices gave a shockwave to customers with a 200 percent year-on-year price surge.
Data from the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) show potatoes were sold at Tk16-22 per kg in January 2023.
However, both old and newly harvested potatoes were currently being sold at Tk 50-55 per kg.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) President Dr Golam Rahman said that the government must take effective steps to rein further inflation as price of daily essential alredy out of reach to the limited income people.
