The price of onions fell and then shot up suddenly. There is a belief that racketeers manipulate the market to serve their interests.
The commerce ministry called a meeting to prepare in advance for the next Ramadan and the discussion was on reserves of onions, lentils, dates, edible oil, sugar and other essentials.
Commerce minister Tipu Munshi said: “Based on the sighting of the moon, Ramadan will begin at the end of April and though at that time the market will have enough local onions we need to take measures well in advance to prevent any sudden escalation of price.”
“We will not take any risk and the import of onions will go on,” he said.
Former commerce minister Tofail Ahmed, said: “During Ramadan, City, Meghna, S Alam and TCB will import a total of 200,000 tonnes of onions and since the time to bring the onions by sea will take 45 days, the process needs to start now.”
Traders have alluded to the recent rise in price of onions to sudden rainfall while farmers have said that rain did not create any problem at all.
An official of the ministry of commerce said that a similar incident happened with sugar in 2009.
Due to rise of price in the international market, the LCs for sugar import was reduced. There were some sugar traders in that meeting and they informed the markets. Soon the price of sugar went up, said the official.
One onion importer says: “There aren’t any shenanigans or manipulation of the market at the moment and once supply increases, price will fall.”
A press note from the ministry of commerce, sent out on Jan 6, says: “To monitor the markets, drives will be carried out in the markets and traders are asked to keep their receipts and other documents.”
The press note warns that legal steps will be taken against anyone adopting unscrupulous methods and trying to unethically control the market.
The onion market became restive once India suddenly stopped export on Sept 29 last year. At that time, the price rose to Tk 270 per kg. When local onions came to the market, the price came down to Tk 100 but it rose again in the last couple of days.
