Prices of a good number of daily food items have soared significantly in the last one-and-a-half week, with markets opening after the Eid, New Age correspondent found while visiting some markets.
Belying the hope of the consumers, many essential food items have rather become costlier after the Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr.
A substantial increase in prices of many commodities in the last three or four weeks was also reported by Trading Corporation of Bangladesh—the state-owned enterprise dealing in consumer products.
Market watchers and consumer rights activists say such a blanket increase in the prices of a bunch of commodities in a short span of time appeared to be the sharpest in recent months.
Traders argued that commodities became costlier as importers and wholesalers had first raised the prices on their stocks as they adjusted the increased import costs due to price hike in in international market during Ramadan and immediately before the month of fasting.
Fresh upward trend in international market in prices of some commodities like sugar and wheat also inspired importers to raise the prices on their existing stocks.
Smaller stocks of rice and wheat at government warehouses have also encouraged rice and flour millers to make higher increase in prices on their deliveries.
Abdur Razzak, a food commodity trader at Maulvibazar, argued that prices of atta, sugar and edible oil were raised by millers just as adjustments to import costs.
‘In Ramadan, government and millers’ association had fixed the prices so as the market opened after Eid, millers signalled the wholesalers for raising the prices on fresh deliveries,’ he said.
A sugar trader at Maulvibazar said sugar was selling in Ramadan at bellow than import cost. ‘And after the Eid sugar price at wholesale markets increased sharply as they saw fresh hikes in prices on the international market.’
Sugar for immediate delivery was traded at close to $700 per tonne on Monday in London commodity exchange.
Emdad Hossian Malek, chief of the Market Price Monitoring Cell at the Consumer Association of Bangladesh, said, ‘Increase in prices of a good number of commodities in a short span of time appeared to be the sharpest in recent months.’
The price of packed atta at retails increased by about 19 per cent, sugar by 10 per cent, eggs 17 per cent, broiler chicken 18 per cent, soya bean oil 5 per cent, mung dal 15 per cent, onion 32 per cent, ginger 9 per cent and garlic by 7 per cent.
The TCB recorded retail prices however mismatched with the higher prices in kitchen markets.
A director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry which helped government to monitor and fix prices of some commodities in Ramadan argued that fresh rise in their price in international market had mainly forced traders to sell products at higher prices.
