The price of broiler chicken had gone up by Tk 10 in a day and was retailing for Tk 170 a kilogram in different markets in the city on Friday.
Red lentil, coarse salt and sugar prices also went up in the retail markets in the city over the week ending Friday.
The price of onion, garlic and some vegetables also went up over the week while prices of most of the vegetables remained still high in the city markets.
A number of consumers, while talking to New Age, expressed their utter dissatisfaction and helplessness for continuing price hike that decreases their purchasing capacity.
‘The price hike has been forcing us to buy less amount of items, resulting in less intake of nutritious foods’, said Md Abdur Rauf, a consumer in the city’s Rajarbag market.
Traders and poultry farmers said that the broiler price had increased due to its less supply due to closure of a large number of poultry farms in the past several months.
As the broiler supply had decreased, the local chicken prices had also increased, they said.
‘I could not buy sufficient poultry birds even by paying higher prices today from the wholesalers due to less supply,’ Abu Kalam, owner of Bikrampur Broiler House at Shantinagar kitchen market, told New Age.
‘About 47 per cent poultry farms were closed in the country from July 2010 to mid-March, 2012 for input price hike and disease infection and so the supply had ultimately decreased,’ said Bangladesh Poultry Shilpo Rokhkha Jatiya Parishad general secretary Khondokar Md Mohsin.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing latest data on Friday, broiler was selling for Tk 165 to Tk 170 a kg. The price was Tk 155 to Tk 160 on Thursday.
A piece of local chicken weighing around one kg was retailing for Tk 350 to Tk 375 in the city’s Hatirpool and Shantinagar markets. The price was at least Tk 20 less last week.
Trading Corporation of Bangladesh latest data said local red lentil and Nepali red lentil price had increased by Tk 5 a kg over the week and was retailing for Tk 105 to Tk 110 a kg and Tk 110 to Tk 115 respectively.
Packed coarse salt price had gone up by Tk 2 a kg over the week and was selling for Tk 18 to Tk 20 a kg at city’s Karwan Bazar on the day but fine grade of packed iodised salt remained unchanged and was retailing for Tk 26 to Tk 30 a kg.
The price of onion had gone up by Tk 2 a kg over the week and was retailing for Tk 24 to Tk 30 a kg.
Though local garlic price remained unchanged and was selling for Tk 50 to Tk 60 a kg, imported garlic price had increased by Tk 10 a kg and was retailing for Tk 90 to Tk 110 a kg in different city markets.
Unpacked sugar price went up in the markets by Tk 3 a kg and was retailing for Tk 56 to Tk 58 a kg.
The price of edible oil remained unchanged. Unpacked super palm and soya bean oil had been retailing for Tk 118 to Tk 120 a kg and Tk 128 to Tk 130 a kg. Bottled soya bean was retailing for Tk 650 to Tk 660 each a 5-liter bottle.
The price of okra went up by Tk 8 a kg to Tk 36 to Tk 40 a kg, aubergine by Tk 4 a kg to Tk 36 to Tk 40 a kg.
Like previous week, bitter gourd, cucumber and snake gourd were retailing for Tk 30 to Tk 32 a kg, Tk 20 to Tk 24 a kg and Tk 40 a kg respectively.