Prices of kitchen staple onion witnessed a hike last week after remaining almost unchanged for about a month.
Prices of the newly-harvested local onions rose by Tk 5.0-10 per kilogram in the last seven days as were retailed at Tk 35-42 a kg on Saturday.
Imported varieties of onion also showed Tk 2.0-5.0 a kg hike as were retailed at Tk 20-28 per kg on the day.
The state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) recorded a 6.0-25 per cent hike in onion prices in the last one and a half weeks depending on varieties.
Nurul Amin, a spice vendor in the capital's Rayerbazar area, said prices of the tuber spice showed a Tk 3.0-5.0 a kg hike at the wholesales, including the city's Shyambazar, Karwan Bazar and Sadeq Khan Agricultural Market in the last few days.
"I bought local early harvested onion at Tk 1,360 a maund (40 kg) from Sadeq Khan Market today (Saturday) which was Tk 1,240-1,250 three days back", he informed.
Narayan Chandra Saha, a Shyambazar-based spice wholesaler, said prices of local onion increased slightly in the the country's growing hubs. He said this was a normal business trend in this time of a year. He also said that supply of early-harvested variety (known as murikata) had started to decline.
"Supply of the early-harvested onion is declining while seasonal one, known as 'haali' has started to capture the market in the last two weeks," he stated.
He said the next one week would be an important period during which the prices might show a slight hike.
Mr Saha mentioned that import from India was negligible amid higher rates of onion in that country.
He, however, said that there was no reason to be concerned about supply of onion in domestic market as local production would hit a record this year if the weather remained favourable in the next one and a half months.
Mr Saha said the current price of onion is less than half of that in the corresponding period of last year.
Bangladesh produced over 1.97 million tonnes of onion in 2019-20 financial year, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The country has a demand for 2.5-2.6 million tonnes of the spice while shortfall is met through import mainly from India, according to the 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.
