The prices of onion in local markets will remain high till the end of November, says Commerce Minister TipuMunsi.
“Bear the brunt a little longer. We expect the locally-produced onions to be available by late November while import of onions from India will begin at the same time,” he said on Saturday (Oct 26).
Speaking at a programme in the northern district of Rangpur’s PirgachaUpazila,Munsi said, the country has demand of 2.6 million tonnes of onions annually.
“Of which, 2.2 to 2.3 million tonnes of onions are produces locally. An additional 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes are imported as a portion of locally produced onion got rotten,” he added.
Bangladesh mainly imports opinion from India, said the minister adding this time India stopped the export of onions without prior notice caused a crisis in the local markets.
“The prime minister and I myself told India that they should have informed us a month ahead of stopping export,” Munsi said.
Assuring that India will start the export of onions, the minister said he is trying to talk to his Indian counterpart to resolve the issues despite the latter’s busy time due to Diwali celebrations.
Munsi, however, didn’t clarify when India will start exporting onions.
Several consignments of onions will come from Egypt next week, informed the minister adding Bangladesh is importing onions from Myanmar too.
Blaming a quarters of for taking advantages of the situations to make more profit, Munsi urged the people to become aware of it.
Prices of onions have gone up by several folds in the local markets following India's ban on the export of onions on Sept 29. Bangladesh is one of the top destinations for Indian 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.
At 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 the 2016-17 fiscal was 1.86 million tonnes against the demand for 2.4 million tonnes.
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.