Onion prices decline as imports begin

Onion prices witnessed a sharp fall in different parts of Bangladesh yesterday, a day after the government gave the go-ahead to import the vegetable from India.

According to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh, the local variety of onion was sold at Tk 80 to Tk 90 per kilogramme (kg) on Monday, which was a Tk 10 decline from Sunday's retail prices.

Prices of the local variety of onion increased by 81 per cent in the last month, prompting the agriculture ministry to import the cooking ingredient to stabilise the volatile market.

The fall of onion prices by Tk 10 per kg a day after the import permission only suggests that a certain section of traders manipulated the market for more profit, claimed AHM Shafiquzzaman, director general of the Directorate of National Consumers Rights Protection (DNCRP).

"We requested the commerce ministry to give import permission a month ago to contain onion prices. Had that been implemented at the time, the sufferings of consumers could have been less," Shafiquzzaman told The Daily Star.

He said that traders, not farmers, reaped the benefits of the high price.

"Since the harvesting season is nearing an end, farmers have little onions in store. It is the traders who have stockpiled it and manipulated the market," Shafiquzzaman added.

Farmers of Pabna, the leading onion-producing hub in Bangladesh, claimed that wholesalers in Dhaka, Chattogram and Sylhet were responsible for the unstable onion market.

"Big merchants in these regions try to control the wholesale price of onion. They keep buying through local agents until they have sufficient stock," said Md Kamruzzaman, a leading onion grower of Durgapur village in Pabna's Sujanagar upazila.

"Once they have the majority of the stock, they start manipulating the market," he added.

Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh also said that a section of unscrupulous traders took advantage of the high price of onion over the last month.

"The import will continue until the market becomes stable. We will rein in imports once the price of onion comes down to Tk 50 per kg," Gosh said.

Meanwhile, wholesale traders of Dhaka, Pabna and Chattogram said after Sunday's announcement, the price of onion has decreased by Tk 250 to Tk 300 per maund (37 kg).

Onion was sold at Tk 3,400 to Tk 3,600 per maund on Saturday but now, it is being sold at Tk 3,150 to Tk 3,300, said Mohammad Majed, a wholesaler of the capital's Shyambazar.

He claimed onion prices would drop further when the low-cost Indian variety hits local markets.

"After paying all the costs, the price of imported Indian onion will be around Tk 20 per kg," Majed added.

The government approved 210 import permit applications for 280,800 tonnes of onion on the first day (June 5), said an official of the agriculture ministry.

Dipankar Ghosh, organising secretary of the Bhomra Clearing and Forwarding Agents, said 330 tonnes of onion arrived at the Bhomra Land Port from India yesterday.

Considering the recent spike in onion prices, the commerce ministry sent a letter to the agriculture ministry on May 14, urging to allow imports of the popular cooking ingredient.

Onion imports have remained halted since March 15 in a bid to ensure better prices for local producers.

The annual demand for onion in Bangladesh is around 25 lakh tonnes, according to the commerce ministry.

This year, the agriculture ministry claimed that domestic production was around 34 lakh tonnes.

However, the country still needs to import around 6.50 lakh tonnes of onion as around 25 percent of the annual domestic yield is wasted due to a lack of storage facilities, according to agriculture ministry data.