The prices of the key kitchen item onion witnessed a notable hike last week, although its harvest time just ended and primary trading is going on.
Retailers and wholesalers are blaming each other for a spike in onion prices.
Prices of local onions have risen by Tk 10 per kilogram in the past seven days as retailed at Tk 45-55 a kg on Thursday.
Imported varieties of the cooking spice were traded at Tk 40-45 a kg on the day.
Juel Rana, a grocer at West Dhanmondi in the capital, said prices of the spice showed a Tk 5.0-6.0 a kg hike at the wholesales after Eid (celebrated on May 14).
"I bought local onion at Tk 38 a kg from Karwanbazar on Wednesday which was at Tk 33-34 before Eid," he added.
Narayan Chandra Saha, a Shyambazar-based spice wholesaler, said prices of local onion increased by Tk 3.0 a kg following normal trading.
Local onion was sold at Tk 34-35 a kg at Shyambazar on Thursday which was at Tk 31-32 a week back, he added.
Mr Saha said prices have increased by Tk 2.0-3.0 a kg mainly at mokams (wholesale markets of onion growing hubs) in Faridpur, Rajbari, Pabna, Magura and other major districts.
Mr Saha spoke about plenty of onion supply as production has increased in the key cultivating districts.
So, there is no chance in major price surge even during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha period when demand normally increases notably, he said.
The trader said the price gap between wholesale and city groceries is huge which should be lessened.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said farmers have been selling onion at Tk 28-30 a kg in Faridpur and Pabna for the past one week.
He said city consumers are buying the same item at Tk 50 a kg.
"It seems traders were waiting for the end of the Ramadan as government had fixed maximum retail price of the item for the fasting month as Tk 40 a kg."
Mr Kabir suggested that state monitoring be stricter both for rice and onion markets to minimise the price gap between the farm level and city retail to help the consumers during this pandemic.
Bangladesh produces 2.0-million tonnes of onion against a demand for 2.5-2.6 million tonnes while its shortfall is met through import mainly from India, according to commerce ministry.
But from 2019, Bangladesh started sourcing onion largely from other exporting countries like Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Myanmar and China amid a sudden ban on onion export by neighbouring India.
This year, the local onion output target has been set at 2.9-million tonnes, according to agriculture ministry.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com