Potato, some other vegetables, egg and loose sugar became pricier last week battering the commoners already hit hard by rising prices of other essentials.
Stored potato, for which cold storage owners and traders shed their tears in the last three months as its production cost was higher than the market price and a sluggish demand among consumers, is no longer a cheaper tuber.
The stored tuber was selling at the city markets at Tk 28-30 per kilogram (kg) which was Tk 24-25 a kg one week ago and Tk 18-20 two weeks back.
Market observers said potato, one of the cheapest vegetables and a kitchen staple regardless of the family's financial background, has suddenly become expensive.
However, a section of the trade and an expert has put the blame on inclusion of potato in the government's safety-net programmes and consumption of a large quantity of seed potatoes by farmers for the sudden price hike.
A trader said the agriculture ministry has taken initiatives to market a 'gigantic' volume of potato through government safety-nets to help both traders and farmers from ruination.
Talking with the FE, value chain expert Prof Golam Hafeez Kennedy said the government's inclusion of potato in its safety-net programmes as well as consumption of a notable amount as seed potatoes by farmers have been causing the hike.
He mentioned that the government has responded to a request made by cold storage owners and big traders to include potato in the safety-nets to help traders avoid losses as production cost of the tuber dwarfed its price in the market. He said, now it is the responsibility of cold storage owners as well as big traders to keep equilibrium in the market.
"Stored potato shouldn't be sold above Tk 30 a kg," he said.
He also urged the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) to publish data of potato production in the FY '21 immediately to help the government taking a timely marketing policy.
However, the agriculture ministry primarily projected potato production at 11 million tonnes in the country last season.
Md Mahbub Morshed, a potato exporter and trader, said the cold storages had nearly 2.7 million tonnes of potato until August 2021 which declined to just 2.5 million tonnes in September.
He also said that the agri ministry took an initiative to market a large volume of potato through government's safety-nets to help the traders and the growers.
He said potato was sold at Tk 19-20 a kg at the cold-storage gates for the last two days which was Tk 14-15 only seven days ago.
A vibrant market may help farmers in the coming weeks to get good prices for potato as they cultivated the crop in advance, he expected.
Monsur Ali, a grocer at East Rayer Bazar in the city told the FE that potato prices witnessed a hike for three times in the last one and a half weeks.
Mr Ali said he bought cardinal and diamante varieties of potato at Tk 25 a kg from Karwan Bazar wholesale market on Thursday morning which was Tk 20 seven days back.
Meanwhile, price of loose sugar which had already increased multiple times in the last few months, witnessed a further hike in a few days.
A trader said the loose sugar increased further by Tk 3.0 a kg as was sold at Tk 84-85 a kg on Thursday while packet one remained at its previous high of Tk 90 a kg.
The sweetener has increased to Tk 84-85 a kg from Tk 80-82 a week back, according to the market sources.
Egg, one of the main sources of protein for the low-income group, became costlier by Tk 5.0 per dozen (12 pieces) in a week, said grocers.
Egg was selling at Tk 115-118 a dozen in the city on the day.
On the other hand, most of vegetables witnessed Tk 5.0-10 a kg hike in a week as were selling at Tk 50-80 a kg yesterday.
Imported tomato and carrot were sold at Tk 140-160 a kg, green chilli Tk 120-150 a kg on the day while onion remained static at Tk 55-70 a kg depending on quality.
