Loose soybean oil sales banned from Aug 1

The government will not allow sales of loose soybean oil from August 1 this year to stop weight tempering during sales, adulteration and maintain nutrition value of the oil, said AHM Shafiquzzaman, director general of the Directorate of National Consumers Right Protection (DNCRP).

The decision of banning the sale of loose soybean oil was supposed to be implemented from January this year, but it was deferred because of the volatile local and international markets, he said.

However, recently both the industries and commerce ministries agreed to go for the ban from the beginning of next month, he said.

Primarily, the decision has been taken only for soybean oil and gradually the same ban will be there for other edible oils also, Shafiquzzaman said.

He spoke at a workshop on the "Consumers' rights protection law and current price hike of essentials" at the auditorium of the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) in Dhaka jointly organised by the ERF and DNCRP.

Currently, soybean oil meets 30 per cent of the country's edible oil consumption and the rest 70 per cent by palm, super palm and mustard oil, Shafiquzzaman said.

And of the total soybean oil sold in Bangladesh, 50 per cent is sold in loose form and 50 per cent bottled, he said.