Prices of almost all essentials, including vegetables and onion, have remained steady with many of them maintaining the previous hike in the capital’s kitchen markets on Saturday.
Some vegetables like red tomato, bitter gourd are still getting pricier in the markets.
The prices of some major essentials like flour, edible oil and sugar remain static maintaining the previous hike.
Prices of major vegetables, namely brinjal, bean, pumpkin, bitter gourd, pointed gourd, potato and green chili have remained static.
However, the price of cauliflower declined by Tk 5.0 each.
Prices of three important spices -- onion, ginger and garlic – have remained steady.
Prices of eggs and chicken varieties -- broiler, Sonali and Pakistani – have also remained unchanged.
Consumers said the latest round of cost hikes of cooking oil which had already witnessed multiple price hikes in the last few months, has cut a big hole in their pockets.
Loose edible oil showed further hike by Tk 3.0 per litre as super palm oil was sold at Tk 140-142 a litre and loose soybean oil at Tk 145-148 a litre on the day.
Taking to The Financial Express, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan said the government should subsidise more to sell some major essentials in the open markets as the demand of subsidised items are increasing day by day due to the recent spike in prices of almost all essentials.
Terming that the poor, fixed income group and jobless people are dealing a huge blow amid the increased prices of commodities, he said the commerce ministry along with other concerned ministries and government agencies should monitor the markets properly and strictly to stabilise the prices of the essentials in the markets on both wholesale and retail levels.
The state-run Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) in its daily report on Saturday stated that the prices of eggs, local sugar, salt (packed), lentil, onion and flour (packed) are Tk 36-Tk 37 (four pieces), Tk 78-Tk 80 per kg, Tk 27-Tk 33 per kg, Tk 105-Tk 112 per kg, Tk 54-Tk 57 per kg and Tk 37-Tk 39 per kg respectively.
Tomatoes (mature) are selling at Tk 102-Tk 113 per kg, broiler chickens at Tk 146-Tk 151 a kg, soybean oil at Tk 143-Tk 145 per litre, garlic (local) at Tk 47-Tk 57 per kg, garlic (imported) at Tk 115-Tk 122 per kg, ginger (local) at Tk 81-Tk 94 per kg and ginger (imported) at Tk 89-Tk 102 per kg.
After visiting some city kitchen markets, the correspondent found that prices of other different essential spices have been stable compared to the prices in the past week.
Commenting on the situation, Maksedul, a vegetable vendor at the city’s Adabor Bazar, told The Financial Express that prices of almost all vegetables have remained unchanged on Saturday compared to Friday’s prices.
Round brinjal( black and white) is selling at Tk 130-300 per five kg at the wholesale level this day, while long brinjal at Tk 150-200 per five kg at the wholesale level, he said.
As for the round and long brinjal at the retail level, he said he is selling them for Tk 40-Tk 60 per kg.
The vegetable vendor said he has bought five kg of bitter gourd at Tk 200- 250 today which was the same as yesterday.
He is now selling it at Tk 60 per kg at the retail level.
Maksedul is selling pumpkins (winter) at Tk 35-45 each at the retail level this day.
When asked about the retail prices of beans, cabbage, cauliflower and local cucumber, another vegetable mobile vendor Hriday said he is selling beans at Tk 50-Tk 60 per kg.
The cabbage was sold at Tk 25-Tk 35 each.
The cauliflower was sold at Tk 30-Tk 35 each on Saturday which was Tk 35-Tk 40 on Friday.
Some other vegetable vendors at Adabor, Mohammadpur Krishi Market along with mobile vendors also echoed the same price level.
Akash at Mohammadpur Krishi Market said the prices of three important spices -- onion, garlic and ginger – have remained stable in the wholesale market.
The prices of different varieties of onion including local are between Tk 42 and Tk 58 per kg in the wholesale market, while ginger (imported) and local garlic are selling at Tk 95-100 and Tk 50-60 per kg respectively, according to him.
The prices of garlic at wholesale markets range between Tk 45 and Tk 100 per kg, he said.
Rasel, a salesman at New Bismillah Broiler at Mohammadpur Krishi Market, told The FE that he is selling broiler chickens at Tk 160-165 a kg.
Sonali and Pakistani chicken are selling at Tk 260 and Tk 280 per kg respectively, he said, adding that a dozen of red eggs are selling at Tk 110.
Jabayer Hossain, a proprietor at Bikrampur Trading Corporation at Mohammadpur Krishi Market who is also a wholesaler, told The Financial Express that the prices of some major essentials like flour, edible oil, sugar and lentil were maintaining the previous hike.
He sees no sign of a decrease in prices of such important essentials right now.
