The prices of onion increased further by Tk 5.0-Tk 10 to Tk 155 per kilogramme on the retail market of the city on Friday.
The current onion prices hit an all-time high, according to Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM).
Local onion was selling at Tk 140-Tk 155 and imported Burmese and Turkish varieties at Tk 130-Tk 140 a kg in the retail market on the day, market sources said.
The prices of onion witnessed a 30-35 per cent hike in a week while an 80-90 per cent rise in a month, according to the data of Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
However, the price of onion declined slightly at Shyambazar wholesale market on Friday. But it did not put any impact on the retail market.
Despite a market holiday, traders at Shyambazar opened their shops on Friday morning aiming to keep the onion supply smooth in the city, said Md Shahidul Islam, proprietor of M/S Alhaj Vandar.
They sold Burmese variety of onion at Tk 106-Tk 108 and local variety at Tk 110-112 a kg on the day, he said, adding that the prices of onion started declining at Shyambazar after hearing the news that India has allowed export of onion through the seaport.
Narayan Chandra Saha, a Shyambazar-based importer, said the prices of onion will come down further on arrival of Indian onion.
Indian exporters hadn't confirmed them yet whether Bangladeshi importers could get Bengaluru rose onion or not, he added.
The Indian government had imposed a ban on export of all varieties of onion on September 29 which caused volatility in the onion market of Bangladesh.
India on October 28 last relaxed its export ban and permitted export of Bengaluru rose variety of onion from Karnataka only through Chennai port, according to a report published on the Times of India.
However, high prices of onion in the domestic market encourage vegetables, wheat and paddy farmers to switch to the spice cultivation this cropping season.
Big traders at Dhaka's few wholesale markets have already made contracts with many farmers in Faridpur, Rajbari and Pabna to buy onion at a fixed rate during the harvesting season, said traders.
Government agencies concerned said onion cultivation was expanding in many districts of the country apart from traditional hubs.
"I have cultivated seed onion after long nine years aiming to earn more profits," Sekendar Ali, a farmer-cum-trader at Ramganj in Sadar upazila of Nilphamari, told the FE.
He said above fifty farm households in his union have sown onion in the first week of October and expecting its arrival on the market in the last week of this month.
Most of the farmers living in his village would have cultivated wheat this time, he said, adding that some farmers have already given up vegetable cultivation this year and started growing onion.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data showed that there was a bumper production of 1.9 million tonnes of onion in the country in last FY (FY'19).
Domestic yield has registered a 40 per cent rise in the past six years and a 110 per cent increase in a decade (except FY'18), according to the BBS data.
Dr Md Jahangir Alam, director of horticulture wing under the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), told the FE that the onion production target has been set at 2.4 million tonnes in the current fiscal year.
"Our local demand is 2.4 million tonnes and we want to meet it locally."
They have set a target to bring 0.235 million hectares of land under onion farming this year, he said. Field reports showed that onion production will surpass the target fixed by them, he added.
Mr Alam said 18 per cent of the target has been achieved by October 31 which was less than 8.0 per cent compared to that of the corresponding period of last year.
Apart from Kushtia, Faridpur, Pabna, Rajshahi and Jashore regions, onion farming has been expanding fast in Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogura, Dhaka, and Cumilla regions this year, he said.
