Commerce Minister Ghulam Mohammed Quader has said they have directed ’80 percent’ of their focus to onion ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha as the price has been stinging homemakers.
“We have held meetings with stakeholders and are contacting Myanmar, China, Pakistan for import onion,” he said replying to a supplementary question in Parliament on Wednesday.
Quader added onion import from India would have been more helpful but this year they suffered production slump and hiked onion prices to $650 per tonne.
“This has caused sudden rise in prices,” he said.
The dear vegetable has left eyes teary with soaring prices over the last few weeks.
The estimated annual demand for onion is 2.3 million metric tonnes. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Bangladesh Bank, there should not be shortage in market supply.
Over 1.9 million metric tonnes of onion was produced this year, said the ministry. In the same period, over 500,000 tonnes of onion was produced according to the central bank.
But the onion supply fell short of demand in August, shooting up the prices.
Each kilogramme of onion was sold at Tk 70-80, nearly twice the normal price.
The government said the price hike was the result of rising onion prices in India.
Later, 5,000 metric tonnes of onion was imported to meet the demand. Those onions are now being sold in the open market by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Minister Quader said it is TCB’s duty to maintain goods prices.
He said the government was vigilant to maintain onion prices and supply.
“No manipulation is taking place here,” he claimed.
Source: Bd news24