A social organisation has called a half-day nationwide shut down to protest the price hike of essential commodities, in particular, the onions.
The strike announced by Adarsha Nagorik Andalon (Ideal Citizens’ Movement) will be observed from 6am to 2pm for Thursday (Nov 21).
The platform also demanded the resignation of the commerce ministry, as well as, punishment to traders, and actions against syndicate who are behind the onion price hike.
Its president Muhammad Mahmudul Hasan announced the protest at a progamme in Dhaka on Saturday (Nov 16).
Hasan said they work on different social issues since they formed the social body in April 2016.
“General people can’t afford the onions due to unusual price hike. Which why we call the protest, not as a political agenda,” said Md Al Amin, geranial secretary of the platform.
The prices of the kitchen ingredient have been on the rise since India banned its export on Sept 29. Bangladesh is much dependent on India to import onions. India exported 2.2 million tonnes of fresh onions in the 2018-19 fiscal year ended on Mar 30, according to a Reuters report.
During the same time, Bangladesh imported 578,111 tonnes of onions from India, according to data compiled by India’s Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.
Bangladesh consumes a higher quantity of onions than the country produces annually.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the country's onion production in 2016-17 fiscal was 1.86 million tonne against the demand for 2.4 million tonne.
In August, the commerce ministry said that the country had 1.6 million tonnes of onions in stock and claimed that the quantity was good enough to meet the local demand.
Bangladesh is eighth on the Food and Agricultural Organization's (FAO) list of top ten countries producing onion.
China tops the FAO list with annual production of 24.28 million tons, followed by India 22.42 million tons, USA 3.73 million tons, Iran 2.37 million tons, Egypt 2.37 million tons, Russian Federation 2.13 million tons, Turkey 2.13 million tons, Bangladesh 1.86 million tons, Pakistan 1.83 million tons and The Netherlands 1.77 million tons.
Price reached Tk 250 a kg onion in the local markets on Nov 15 despite various measures taken by the government.
To keep the local market stable, onions are being flown from abroad on emergency basis. The first consignment of onion from Egypt will be flown to Bangladesh on Nov 19. S Alam Group is importing the onion, the Ministry of Commerce said on Saturday.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) is importing onion from Turkey with several other companies from Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Also read
Egyptian onion consignment arrives Tuesday
Onion to be imported by cargo planes: PM