Sukanta Halder

Consumers are already bearing the brunt of the high prices of edible oil, wheat and rice for the Russia-Ukraine war and unfavourable weather conditions on the domestic front.

Palm oil prices in domestic wholesale and retail markets have started cooling off after Indonesia announced that it would resume exports of the product.

More than 11 years ago, the government issued an order for the trade of essential commodities, aimed at controlling their prices and curbing price manipulation by unscrupulous businesses through hoarding and other unfair means.

Retail prices of wheat flour recently shot up to a 15-year high amid concerns of a supply shortage in local markets after India banned exports of the staple food in order to ensure its availability at home in the face of rising global costs due to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

When his children ask Russel Shaikh why there is no meat and even fish in their meals, he has no answer. This is because he simply has no choice as soaring prices of essential commodities and the rising cost of living have hit hard the pockets of the low-income people like him.

Although processed milk prices are rising at the retail level, farmers are yet to see any benefit as there is no sign of an increase on their end.

Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh have pumped billions of dollars into the shipbuilding sector in recent years to meet their own demand for vessels as well as regain the international market.

Bangladesh emerged as a shipbuilding nation in 2008 when it exported its first ocean-going vessel to a Danish company and suddenly there were talks about the sector’s immense potential and the country capturing a major share of the global shipbuilding market.

Salt production reached a 61-year high this fiscal year thanks to the conducive environment, allowing farmers to eye more profit amid good market prices.

After the new prices came into effect, edible oil companies started supplying bottled, loose soybean and palm oil through distributors from Saturday.

Hotels and resorts in tourist destinations across Bangladesh are enjoying brisk business thanks to the long holiday afforded by most industries in the current festival season centring Eid-ul-Fitr as they look to partially recover pandemic-induced losses.

Edible oil prices see the biggest increase in Bangladesh’s history as the government moves to put an end to the unprecedented crunch of the essential cooking item.

A banker in Naogaon did not find soybean oil in the local market. A woman in Natore was lucky to score a one-litre bottle for an unusually higher price. A private firm employee in Chattogram decided to make do with mustard oil after failing to find soybean oil in her neighborhood.

Air conditioner is the top-selling home appliance in Bangladesh this Eid-ul-Fitr as consumers look to beat rising temperatures.

Indonesia’s abrupt announcement of a palm oil export ban from tomorrow has sent refiners in Bangladesh into zealous rationing, choking the availability of cooking oil at the retail level at a time when its consumption is high.

The edible oil market has become more volatile after wholesalers and millers cut supplies in anticipation of increased prices of the essential cooking ingredient in the wake of the export ban by Indonesia, the world’s biggest supplier of vegetable oil.

Businesses based in Dhaka’s New Market area had to close down for most of yesterday due to a clash between students and traders, leaving them to face huge losses just one-and-a-half weeks ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest sales season in Bangladesh.

The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) has fined 21 insurance companies over Tk 72 lakh for, among others, purchasing assets without its approval, charging higher premiums than the government fixed rates and forging letters.

Sales centring Pahela Baishakh have picked up as people from all walks of life, buoyed by the improvement in the coronavirus situation, are set to welcome the Bangla New Year in colour and festivity today.

For the last two months, 35-year old security guard Saiful Islam could not send any money to his parents living in a village in Rangpur, one of the poverty-stricken divisions in Bangladesh.