Food wasn't in short supply. But many struggled to feed families

As dawn broke yesterday, Achhia Begum prepared again for her daily battle to buy essential goods at subsidised prices in order to save a few bucks and bear other family expenses.

She walked for about ten minutes in the bitter cold to reach the nearby Shialbari intersection in the capital's Mirpur area, where the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) sells rice and flour at subsidised rates under its Open Market Sales (OMS) programme.

Suffering from complications related to her advanced age, she cut a frail figure as she tried to walk faster than usual, apprehensive that the line would be too long and goods would be sold out before her turn.

"It was quite cold in the morning. I arrived at the spot at about 7:00am. Nobody would stand in the queue so early on a cold morning if they were not in financial trouble," the 75-year-old told The Daily Star yesterday.

For her efforts, Begum was rewarded with the 33rd position in the queue. Over the next 10 minutes, the line grew to at least 80 people.

Finally, after waiting in line for around three hours, she managed to buy products from the mobile shop.

This has become a common scene in Dhaka despite the fact that Bangladesh has produced increased quantities of rice in the last three crops season.

It is a testament to the struggle that hundreds of people, especially in urban areas, have faced in order to secure food for their families, with prices of essentials and costs of living spiraling beyond their means.

According to analysts, people from low and fixed-income groups experienced food insecurity due to a lack of access to food grains. They also blamed weak market mechanisms.

About 24 percent of Bangladesh's population was food-insecure, a trend observed to be increasing since May this year, according to the latest World Food Programme (WFP) survey report in August 2023.

The WFP survey revealed that 47 percent of the food-insecure were in low-income households, nine percent in medium-income households, and less than three percent in high-income households.

A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) stated that about 1.19 crore people in Bangladesh experienced high levels of acute food insecurity from May to September this year despite record cereal harvests in 2022 and 2023.

The increase in food insecurity comes despite the fact that cereal production in the country, including paddy, stood at a four-year average of 6.09 crore tonnes between 2018-2022. In 2023, the total paddy production is forecast at a record 5.9 crore tonnes.

"Production is not a problem for Bangladesh. The country's weak link lies in agriculture marketing," said M Asaduzzaman, former research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

By the time the product reaches the consumers from the growers, its price increases manifold, he said.

"Everyone knows the problem. But nobody cares about it," he said.

Asaduzzaman also blamed the lack of available market data on supply and demand trends. "The agricultural marketing department should play a key role in this regard by analysing data of production and market demands," he said.

People's real income is eroding and their purchasing power has been reduced due to global economic downturn stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, compounding inflationary pressures on low-and-fixed income groups.

In this situation, there is no alternative to taking stern action against market manipulators as well as to ensure domestic market management, he said.

He believed political will was crucial to stabilising the market.

The state-run OMS programme is aimed at cushioning the blow of rising food prices for low-income people.

The food ministry runs 964 OMS shops across the country, including 110 places in the capital. All of them sell rice and flour for around half the price that consumers would pay at a grocery store or kitchen market.

Like Begum, Tanzila Akhter, a resident of the capital's Lalbagh area, left home for the OMS truck near Agrani School and College in Azimpur around 9:00am.

The 27-year-old travelled to the spot on foot with her nine-month-old baby but by the time she reached, she found 43 people queued up in front of her.

"It is very difficult to stand in a queue with small children on cold mornings, but I am compelled to buy products from OMS shops as food costs have increased," said Akhter.

Prof Emeritus Abdus Sattar Mandal, former vice-chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, believed those such as Tanzila and Begum would have to continue to struggle.

"Due to ongoing inflation, pressure has been created on low-and-fixed income people. But I don't think the pressure will subside anytime soon," he opined.

"Although we are talking about food inflation, we have also witnessed higher non-food inflation, such as for agricultural inputs like chemicals, seeds, and diesel," he said, adding that it had a natural impact on overall price.

He urged the government to hike the pay scale and adjust wages so people can cope with inflationary pressure. Mandal also underscored the need for stronger governance in the market.

Barring major natural calamities like floods, there is no possibility of a lack of food availability in Bangladesh, said Binayak Sen, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

There are many reasons for supply-chain disruption in the market, including trade policy, but sometimes any product shortage causes a panic or fury among consumers.

So, the government should remain alert when a product's price suddenly becomes unstable as well as strengthen the market monitoring system, said Sen.

In that case, if any untoward situation arises in the kitchen market, the government could preemptively supplement supply shortages through imports.