Onion prices up, ploy to hike edible oil prices

Tag : indian onion


Prices of local and Indian onion went up in the city's kitchenmarkets in the last two days while retailers and edible oilrefiners are making a ploy to hike the edible oil prices.

Meanwhile, the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme of the FoodDirectorate ends today in five metropolis and 36 districts acrossthe country. Locally-produced onion was sold yesterday at Tk 24-26 per kg whileIndian onion at Tk 18-20. Traders said the price of local and Indian onion rose by Tk 6 andTk 3 in the last two weeks.

Abdul Latif Mia, president of Karwan Bazar Arat Malik (wholesalers)Samity, told The Daily Star that farmers are expecting to sellonion at a higher price like last year. However, some traders havestarted hoarding onion with a hope to make more profit. It hascaused the onion price to go up on the markets, he said. Retailers across the country continue to sell palm oil at Tk 100 toTk 105 a litre on the retail markets and Tk 98 to Tk 98.5 on thewholesale markets though the time of selling palm oil at fixed rateexpires today.

Officials of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI)in a meeting with edible oil traders in Chittagong on April 29fixed the wholesale and retail prices of palm oil at Tk 96 and Tk93 until May 10.

Soya bean oil was selling at Tk 110 to Tk 115 per kg on retailmarkets in the capital yesterday. Oil traders of Moulvibazar and Karwan Bazar said different brandcompanies had reduced the supply of soya bean oil in the last threedays. Quoting some of the distributors, they said the price ofbranded soye bean oil will be hiked by Tk 4 to Tk 5 per litre. Prices of rice varieties remained stable in the wholesale marketsin the last three days. The minimum retail price of rice varietiesis between Tk 33 and Tk 43 per kg.