Fresh spike in onion price irks consumers

Onion prices shot up in Bangladesh after the plant quarantine office of the agriculture ministry stopped issuing import permits for the popular cooking ingredient in a bid to protect the interest of local growers.

Onion prices, including that of imported varieties, began to slump since the second week of March amid increased imports and local supply, falling as low as Tk 20 to Tk 35 per kilogramme at retail.

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Locally grown bulbs are usually sold at higher rates compared to imported onions because of their longer shelf-life.

Against this backdrop, many farmers stopped selling onion as they had to sell their produce at around Tk 22 per kilogramme, which according to some was below the production cost.

Onion prices then started an upward climb from the beginning of this week as imports came to a halt after the agriculture ministry suspended issuing permits in this regard.

Yesterday, retailers in Dhaka sold each kilogramme of onion for between Tk 35 and Tk 40, up 25 per cent from Tk 25 to Tk 35 a month ago, shows market price data compiled by the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

The spike created hopes among farmers, reports our correspondent from Pabna.

A week ago, each maund (37 kilogrammes) of onion was sold for Tk 900 to Tk 1,000. Now, the same amount is being sold for Tk 1,300.

"But this is not good enough for us. If we can sell onions at Tk 1,500 per maund, we will be able to make our expected profit," said Md Montu Miah, an onion farmer of Ulat village at Sujanagar wholesale market of Pabna, one of the main onion producing districts.

Farmers grew onions on 2.49 lakh hectares of land across the country in the current fiscal year, down marginally from the previous year. However, production has increased to nearly 34 lakh tonnes, according to provisional estimates by the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

Ranjit Kumar Paul, director of the Plant Quarantine Wing (PQW) of the DAE, said his office stopped issuing permits for onion imports to protect the interests of local farmers.

The PQW stopped issuing permits in this regard from May 5.

Bangladesh mainly imports the bulb from India to meet a part of the domestic demand of around 25 lakh tonnes as one-fourth of the local produce suffers from process loss.

"Farmers have a lot of onions in their stocks after harvesting. That is why we are not issuing any import permits for bringing the bulb," Paul said.

The PQW did not give any timeline about when it would resume issuing permits for onion imports.

"We will start issuing permits upon instruction from the agriculture ministry," he added.

Our correspondent from Dinajpur reports that wholesale prices soared at the ports, namely Hili land port in northwest region, after the decision.

A kilogramme of onion which was available at Tk 15 to Tk 18 per kilogramme in the local market is now being sold at Tk 22 to Tk 25 per kilogramme, traders said.

"Prices may go up further though," said Dipankar Ghosh, former organising secretary of the C&F Agents Association at Bhomra, one of the main land ports for importing onion from India.

He said the suspension of permits to import onion would benefit traders more than farmers.

Md Milon Hossain, a shopkeeper in Pabna, said he was selling each kilogramme of onion for Tk 35 after buying it for about Tk 32.5 per kilogramme.

"Prices have been soaring almost every day not only in wholesale markets, but also retail markets. But we do not increase prices on a daily basis," he added.