Consumers are still paying higher prices for edible oil despite a gradual fall in its prices in the global market over the months.
Retail price of the essential item was increasing in the domestic market, sources said.
It was observed that the global prices of edible oil continued declining for the last one year and that of soybean oil reached below $700 a tonne from $880 one year back.
But the fall in prices has put no impact on the domestic market which mostly depends on imported oil to meet the growing demand for such cooking oil.
Soybean oil has been retailing at Tk 80-Tk 88 per litre (loose) and at Tk 106-Tk 109 per litre (bottled) in Dhaka for last five months.
Rather decline, market sources, said price of the commodity rose by Tk 2-Tk 5 per litre (both loose and bottled) in May last.
Palm oil now sells at Tk 74-Tk 76 (super) and Tk70- Tk 72 (normal) per litre at retail level.
Rupchanda, a soybean brand of Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited (BEOL), was selling at Tk 109 per litre, according to groceries.
Other local soybean brands like Teer were selling at Tk 106-Tk 107 a litre.
Market observers said refiners and traders are eating up all the benefits of the reduction in edible oil prices in the international market.
According to the global commodity webportals, soybean prices had been $880-$700 per tonne (1,000 kgs) and palm oil between $720 and $ 600 per tonne for the past one year.
The price of soybean was $882 per tonne in September, 2017 which declined to below $700 a tonne in August, 2018, according to the global commodity web-portal IndexMundi.
Oil World, another portal showed, expected worldwide stocks of 17 oils and fats might increase to 13.2 per cent of production in 2018 than that of 2017.
Global production of palm oil was predicted to be as high as 70.84 million tonnes in 2018 from 67.87 million tonnes in 2017, according to Oil World.
Soybean production might also increase by 4.41 per cent to 55.54 million tonnes during the period.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said soybean prices cost an importer Tk 65-Tk 66 per litre, considering the rates during the July-August period.
"Palm (best quality) costs an importer not more than Tk 56-Tk 58 per litre, considering the prices in July-August," he said.
Biswajit Saha, general manager (finance) of City Group, that owns edible oil brand 'Teer', said the price of soybean has started increasing a little bit from this month.
He said they will observe the market for next few days and then readjust the prices.
The country has no scarcity of cooking oil now and market is static for more than one year, he said, adding that loose soybean has been selling at Tk 80-Tk 81 a 'kg' for a week now.
Mahmudul Hasan, spokesman for the Bangladesh Tariff Commission, said the commission usually reviews the market prices following any volatility in the market.
He said if the commerce ministry asked the commission, then it will conduct market survey for readjusting the cooking oil prices.
Bangladesh now imports more than 2.4 million tonnes of edible oil and fats against the demand for 1.8-2.0 million tonnes.
According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), Bangladesh imports 1.38 million tonnes of total oils and fats in the first half of 2018 (January-June), which was 1.28 million tonnes during the corresponding period of 2017 registering a growth of 8.35 per cent.
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