Govt overturn sugar price hike move: India to export 50,000 tonnes of onion to BD
Staff Reporter :
Demand for onions usually rises during the holy month of Ramadan as Bangladeshis consume about five lakh tonnes of onion with numerous dishes for Iftar.
Meanwhile, India has allowed traders to export 50,000 tonnes of onion to Bangladesh till March 31. The export will begin with immediate effect.
Apart from it, the government has also stepped back from its move to hike the sugar price to Tk 160 considering the sufferings of the public.
However, the annual demand for onion in Bangladesh is about 28 lakh tonnes. Of this, 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes are imported from India.
“We have allowed export of 50,000 tonnes of onion to Bangladesh, 1,200 tonnes to Mauritius, 3,000 tonnes to Bahrain and 560 tonnes to Bhutan with immediate effect,” Indian Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told the media on Thursday.
As per media reports, he said the traders are allowed to export this quantity till March 31 while the modalities to this end are being worked out.
Singh said that the decision to allow export to Bangladesh has been taken following a recommendation from the External Affairs Ministry.
India imposed a ban on the export of onion in December last year to boost the domestic supply and check the increase in essential commodity prices.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud during his India visit early this month requested India to lift the ban on the export of some essential commodities, including onion to Bangladesh to keep their prices in Bangladesh’s local market stable ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
During his meetings with Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal, Hasan urged them to export those commodities to Bangladesh.
The Department of Agricultural Extension (DaE) have fixed the annual cultivation target at 36.73 lakh tonnes from 2.6 lakh hectares of land, which would be a record-high in terms of yield and acreage.
According to DaE sources, around 1.36 lakh hectares of land across the country were brought under onion cultivation.
As per DAE data, a total of about 2.49 lakh hectares were brought under onion cultivation to produce 33 lakh tonnes of the bulb in 2023.
The country produced 23.30 lakh tonnes of onion in the 2018-19 fiscal year and imported nearly 11 lakh tonnes.
The production target for the 2019-20 fiscal year has been set at 23.83 lakh tonnes while as much as three lakh tonnes of the bulb have been imported so far.
The government has stepped back from its move to hike the sugar price to Tk 160 considering the sufferings of the public. Earlier on Thursday, the Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industry Corporation (BSFIC) under the industries ministry issued a notice stating that the maximum retail price of the state-owned mills producing sugar has been set at Tk 160 per kg, an increase of Tk 20 per kg.
However, the industries ministry said in a press statement on Thursday night that the decision to increase sugar price has been withdrawn considering public suffering.
