Open market sales of onions to begin Tuesday
The Financial Express September 16, 2019
-BSS photoThe Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) will start open market sales of onions in a subsidised price from Tuesday in the capital for enabling the consumers to heave a sigh of relief in the wake of overnight surge of the commodity price.
“We will start sale of the onion at a subsidised rate from Tuesday initially at five spots in the city,” said M Humayun Kabir, deputy senior executive officer of the TCB, reports BSS.
The official disclosed the name of three city spots—Press Club and Secretariat gate, Mothijheel Bok Chattar and Khamar Bari– but the other two spots are yet to be fixed, he added.
But the unit price of the onion has not yet been fixed by the corporation, said the official.
The Ministry of Commerce already has instructed the TCB to sell the onion at a subsidised rate in the city to contain the soaring onion price.
The instruction was given during a meeting held on Sunday at the ministry chaired by Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi following a sudden price hike of the essential across the country.
Meanwhile, onion price surged overnight after traders hiked the rate in the wake of restriction imposed by India on shipments of the commodity to other countries to contain its domestic prices.
The Indian authority slapped $850 (Tk 71,821) as minimum export price for per tonne of onion on September 13, a move that made onion market highly volatile here as Bangladesh meets a portion of its annual demand for the onion through imports for inadequate domestic production.
Retail prices of onion shot up to Taka 20-25 per kg for last two days. It is now being sold at Taka 70-75 per kg while the Indian variety at Taka 60. The price of local onion was Taka 50-55 per kg while the Indian variety Taka 45-50 per kg in last Thursday at the city markets.
