Most traditional items of Iftar - an evening meal to break the fast - have become pricier this Ramadan amid skyrocketing prices of the essentials.
Prices of all kinds of fruits also witnessed a hike, thus digging deeper into the pockets of the fasting people.
Meanwhile, many of the traditional bazaars, famous for Iftar items, opened after two years on Sunday - the first day of the holy Ramadan.
The traditional Iftar market Chawkbazar witnessed a big rush of visitors from different parts of the city who opted to buy Iftars of traditional Old Dhaka.
Pricey beef, khasi, chicken pushed up prices of all kinds of kebab, roll and other such items by 15-20 per cent, said Razzaque Ali, a seasonal Iftar seller at Chawkbazar.
The price of beef has increased nearly by Tk 150-200 a kg, while edible oil is more than 50 per cent higher than that of last Ramadan, he said.
Mr Razzaque said the costly beef had cut their profits as they were making only Tk 60-100 by selling a kg of suti kebab and Tk 50-60 from one kg of jaali kebab - the profit was around Tk 120-150 a kg last year.
The most popular delicacy at Chawkbazar - 'boro baper polay khai' (mixture of chickpeas, brain, minced meat, potato, flattened rice, egg, chicken, spices, ghee) - witnessed a 20 per cent hike as sold at Tk 600-650 a kg.
Ramjan Ali, a restaurant owner, said all the cooking ingredients had increased significantly in the last one year, forcing them to raise prices of Iftar items.
Seasonal traders at Chawkbazar were also selling giant beef, goat, chicken and duck roasts, koel and pigeon roasts, and kebabs including suti, jali, irani, tika, boti, shik, chicken suslik, kashmiri, etc.
Apart from Chawkbazar, other food outlets in the city, including Star Kebab, BFC, CFC, Mama Halim, RFC and Fakruddin, were also busy with Iftar sales.
It was noticed that the number of makeshift outlets on the footpaths across the city had notably increased this year after being closed for the last two years due to the pandemic.
The most common items sold for Iftar for all classes of people in the capital are: chhola bhuna (fried and spiced chickpeas), muri (puffed rice), beguni (fried eggplant slice with layers of pulses powder), potato chop, piyaju (mixture of finely chopped onion and pulses powder) and pakowra etc.
Prices of muri or puffed rice, an important item for Iftar, increased by Tk 20-30 a kg in the last two days as it was sold at Tk 100-120 a kg in loose form on Sunday.
Prices of various types of local and imported fruits shot up by Tk 10-50 a kg.
Dates of normal quality were sold at Tk 260-400 a kg, medium quality at Tk 450-600 and finer quality at Tk 650-1,500 a kg.
Guava was sold at Tk 90-100 a kg, watermelon Tk 35-40 a kg, orange Tk 180-200 a kg, apple (regular) at Tk 200-240, and apple (green) at Tk 250-260 a kg in Dhaka on Sunday.
