Onion prices showed a tectonic hike last week, further augmenting woes of consumers who already suffer skyrocketing trend of commodities like rice, edible oil, fish, poultry birds, egg and meat.
Local variety retailed at Tk 45-55 a kg on Thursday from Tk 25-35 seven days ago depending on quality.
Imported varieties showed a Tk 5.0 hike at per kg and sold at 55-60 at retail level, according to city groceries and kitchen markets.
The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) recorded a 50-per cent hike in local onion price and 12 per cent in imported variety on average.
The current onion prices are 50 to 110 per cent higher than that of a year ago, reveal TCB records.
Insiders ascribe this price hike to a debacle during peak harvest period in January, untimely rain in early February and a halt in new import permits (IPs).
Value chain expert Prof Golam Hafeez Kennedy said local onion prices were much below than that of imported Indian varieties even a few days ago.
The price fall hit the normal value chain as frustrated framers sold onion at much lower rates, he told the FE.
It is peak time of the early harvested seed onion (murikata) while the seasonal onion (known as hali) will hit the market in three-four weeks.
The upset farmers also sold murikata variety at only Tk 10-14 a kg across the country as they hardly could make any profit this season, Prof Kennedy cited.
He said a syndicate of big traders and importers might have a hand in such a prohibitive price hike.
Production might have also been hampered due to the westerly low that caused heavy winds and rain in the first week of this month, he added.
The expert suggests that agricultural extension department deliver proper data on production losses to help the government take a timely import policy.
"The government should take the recent hike in onion prices seriously as the consumers are already under great inflationary pressure for higher prices of key commodities," said Consumers Association of Bangladesh vice-president SM Nazer Hossain.
The holy Ramadan is only five to six weeks away when the demand for onion rises threefold, he told the FE.
Mr Hossain called for the government to strictly monitor the kitchen market to give people some relief.
Import should also be eased soon to keep the price of the spice within the reach of commoners, he said.
Narayan Chandra Saha, a Shyambazar-based importer-cum-trader, says 70-per cent trading of murikata is over. The demand will be met by the rest 30 per cent until supply of 'hali' variety.
He recognised that the price fall of murikata in January impacted the market as farmers sold their produce at a time to local traders who are now dominating the early harvested variety.
The trader said the government's halt in new IPs also leads to this inflation.
Importers are bringing onion from India under old IPs while Indian onions are much pricier this year than that of Bangladeshi or Burmese ones, he comments.
"We are expecting that traders would start bringing in Burmese onion which could help ease prices to some extent," Mr Saha said.
Bangladesh produced an all-time high of 2.3-million tonnes of onion last fiscal and imported 0.45-million tonnes to meet its demand for 2.6-million tonnes.
Agriculture ministry is expecting more than 3.3-million tonnes of onion output this year.
Meanwhile, loose edible oil, some early summer vegetable varieties and outgoing winter varieties saw further price hike, heightening miseries of commoners.
Loose soybean price hit Tk 160 a litre and super-palm oil Tk 150 a litre while bottled soybean was traded at the previous high of Tk 168 a litre.
