Prices of essential food items that make up the traditional fare for breaking fast shot up anywhere between 50 and 100 percent in the span of less than a week. With no political agitation programmes underway, supply of vegetables like brinjal, cucumber, green chilli, potato, etcetera remain normal. Yet, we have seen a doubling of prices for brinjal, cucumber, and green chili in the past week in Dhaka city. Chittagong city dwellers are facing a similar situation.
Every year, during Ramadan, a high demand situation is taken advantage of by unscrupulous traders to jack up prices. It is all too known and yet there is no preparedness strategy in place. The answer to this abnormal price hike is maintaining steady supply, something which is thrown off gear because of wholesale intervention on the supply side. Consequently, prices at the retail level soar. One might occasionally see drives by mobile courts to control the prices in the retail market. This, however, keeps out the root cause of syndicates’ grip over the market unaddressed.
Interference with the market forces is not desirable also. What the government can do is bring the importers, wholesalers, and even the retailers, under a regular consultative process to keep prices from rising. Because Ramadan market is marked by huge sales, the traders can spread their profits thin and yet reap considerable profits in the end.
Basically the traders need to imbibe the spirit of Ramadan and refrain from manipulation and hording for which, of course, constant tab will have to be kept on all levels of the marketing mechanism.
Source: The Daily Star
