Prices of edible oil, egg, chicken still high
Staff Correspondent
A file photo shows bottles of edible oil at a shop in a city market. Price of edible oil remained high in the city’s markets last week. — New Age photoPrices of edible oil, chicken and eggs remained high in the city’s kitchen markets last week ending Friday due to supply shortage, traders said.
Price of garlic, however, decreased over the week.
Consumers in different markets alleged that there was no shortage of supply in the markets and blamed traders’ greed of making maximum profit for the price hike.
‘How can we believe that there was supply dearth while we can buy the goods as much as we need,’ questioned Rehana Akhter, a consumer who came to city’s Palashi market on Friday.
The rising prices of essentials put pressure on the monthly family budget and affected the nutrition level of the low income people, Rehena said, adding that the consumers were victims in the hand of traders while there was none to regulate the market and protect the consumers.
Edible oil retailers blamed price hike by the wholesalers while the wholesalers said the millers had increased the price where they had no hand.
‘The millers themselves fix the increased price while we have nothing to say. And so we have to sell them at higher rate,’ Bangladesh Paikary Vojjaya Tel Babosayee Samity president Golam Maola told New Age.
Zahir Ahmed Ratan, managing director of Nurjahan Group, one of the leading companies that markets edible oil, blamed the banks’ failure to finance new Letters of Credit and high international market price of edible oil for the price hike in the local market.
Unpacked soya bean and super palm oil were retailed for Tk 135 a kg and Tk 115 a kg respectively while each five-litre bottled soya bean oil was selling for Tk 650 to Tk 665 on Friday.
Broiler chicken was selling for Tk 155 to Tk 160 per kg at Palashi kitchen market and Hatirpool in the city on Friday while local chicken was selling for Tk 250 to Tk 270 per piece weighing around one kg. Egg was selling for Tk 34 to Tk 36 a hali (four pieces).
But an increase in the supply of local garlic brought down its prices in the market to Tk 30 a kg on Friday from Tk 40 a kg last week. The price of imported garlic remained unchanged and was selling for Tk 70 a kg.
Flour price remained unchanged on Friday with unpacked flour selling for Tk 30 a kg and packed flour for Tk 38 a kg.
Like the previous week, prices of fine varieties of rice such as Miniket and Najirshail ranged between Tk 40 and Tk 52 a kg, medium variety between Tk 36 and Tk 38 and of coarse variety between Tk 28 and Tk 32 a kg over the week.
Price of onion, potato, green chilli, aubergine, beans and okra remained unchanged.
Reader’s Comment
comments powered by Disqus
