Onion prices increased again on Friday after showing a gradual decline for the last two weeks.
Prices of local variety of onion increased by Tk 10 per kg both at wholesale and retail on the day, selling at Tk 75-90 per kg in the retails.
Imported Burmese onion of good quality also witnessed a hike by Tk 5.0, being sold at Tk 60-65 per kg.
Other imported onion prices also showed a Tk 4.0-Tk 5.0 rise per kg in a day at retail.
Traders in Dhaka claimed that the traders in Faridpur, Rajbari, Natore, Pabna, Kushtia, Jhenaidah and Bogura have squeezed the supply of local onion from Thursday evening which caused the surge.
However, they said there is an ample supply of the spice for now and harvest of early variety Murikata will begin soon.
Islam Uddin, a Shyambazar based wholesaler, said he bought local onion at Tk 45-46 per kg on Wednesday night from traders at Khankhanapur in Rajbari.
But the traders started charging Tk 55-58 per kg for the same produce on Friday morning, he said.
He said seasonal stockists in the onion hubs became frustrated following the gradual decline in onion prices.
So, many of the traders decided to squeeze supply for a few days to force the rise in prices, he said.
“But they will not be able to continue it for long as early Murikata varieties will hit the market soon,” he said.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Secretary Humyaun Kabir Bhuiyan said market monitoring should be continued strictly until January next year to keep prices of onion reasonable.
Random mobile courts are needed in the onion growing hubs to keep prices of the spice affordable, he added.
Onion production was an all-time high at 1.96 million tonnes in the financial year 2019-2020 (FY20) against a demand for 2.4-2.6 million tonnes, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The country also imports 0.9 to 1.2 million tonnes of onion annually from India, Myanmar, Egypt, Turkey, China and Pakistan.
The Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) said onion production target for FY21 has been set at 2.4 million tonnes.
