Prices of onion, garlic and vegetables increased further last week augmenting woes of the consumers, especially the commoners.
Hilsa was selling in the city at exorbitant prices yesterday, the day a three-week long ban by the government on catching, transporting or carrying, storing and selling (trading) of the popular fish ended.
Prices of egg and broiler chicken, however, showed a slight decline.
One of the main cooking ingredients onion's price continued to rise as it hit an all-time high (Tk 150 a kilogram) last week. Local variety of the spicy crop was trading at Tk 140-150 per kg and imported ones at Tk 120-140 a kg at retails on Thursday.
The onion price witnessed a 30-35 per cent hike in a week and 80-82 per cent in a month, according to the state-run Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
TCB data showed the current onion price is 240-266 per cent higher than that of a year ago.
The volatility in onion market started in Bangladesh with imposition of export ban on the spice by India on September 29 to stablise the price in its own market.
But India relaxed the ban on shipments of onion on October 28 as it permitted to export Bangaluru Rose variety of the spice from Karnataka by using only the Chennai port, according to a Times of India report.
Bangladeshi traders said supply crunch of both local and imported onion caused the hike in its price in the country.
The prime minister of Bangladesh and the commerce minister both assured last week that the onion market would be stable within a few days.
Private company S Alam Group was likely to bring 50,000 tonnes of onion from Egypt within the next several days, according to media reports.
Garlic prices hit Tk 170-190 a kg last week from Tk 140-160 a kg earlier.
Egg prices declined to some extent as the main protein source for the common people was sold at Tk 108-112 a dozen from Tk 118-120 per 12-piece earlier.
Broiler chicken prices declined to Tk 130-140 from Tk 145-Tk 150 a kg.
But, vegetables including brinjal, snake gourd, clocasia stem, sponge gourd, okra prices increased by Tk 5.0 to 10 a kg in the last seven days. All those vegetables were sold at Tk 60-70 a kg yesterday. Pumpkin was sold at Tk 40-45 a kg--- a Tk-15 hike in a week.
On the other hand, early winter varieties of different vegetables including cauliflower, cabbage and country bean slightly declined.
Stored tomato was static and was selling at Tk 120 and imported carrot at Tk 90-100 a kg.
Hilsa hit the market on Thursday after the 22-day ban on fishing. Most of the traders sold stored Hilsa at much higher rates. The fish in few markets were found selling at Tk 1,450-1,650 a kg.
Traders said supply will increase considerably from Friday morning which may help decline in its prices.
