Vegetables became costlier last week further increasing suffering of the consumers, especially the commoners.
Broiler chicken also witnessed a rise in its prices while loose soybean oil and garlic slightly declined in the last seven days.
Prices of vegetables including papaya, snake gourds, pointed gourds, ridge gourds, sponge gourds, eddo, okra, clocacia stems and bitter gourds increased by Tk 5-10 per kilogram (kg) and were sold at Tk 45-90 a kg on Thursday.
Stored tomato prices rose to Tk 120-140 per kg in the week.
All kinds of leafy, ash gourds and bottle gourds prices registered a rise of Tk 3-10 per piece or bunch.
Mizanur Rahman, a wholesaler at Karwan Bazar, told the FE that vegetable prices in some growing districts increased amid supply crunch.
He said farm level prices of even seasonal eddo has increased to Tk 36-38 a kg from Tk 22-23 a kg two weeks back.
Shariful Hasan, another veg trader at Rayer Bazar-Beribadh in the city, said the month long flood in July-August in many areas of Bangladesh has caused damage to vegetables on thousands of acres of croplands severely.
He said farmers in many places under Bogura, Pabna, Rangpur, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Chattogram and Dhaka regions have witnessed a huge damage of their vegetable fields this year.
The farmers are now concentrating on early winter crops with the hope of recouping some of the financial losses they incurred in summer, he said.
Contacted, the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) also monitored a 40-60 per cent surge in vegetable prices at district level in the last one month.
DAM deputy director (research, market linkage and ICT) Dewan Ashraful Hossain said squeeze in supply amid crop loss in 28 districts caused hike in veg prices.
He said flood and inundation in Rangpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Sylhet and Chattogram divisions last month caused damage to standing crops (vegetables) on over 60,000 hectares of land.
He said prices of 25 kinds of vegetables including bitter gourd, snake gourd, pointed gourd, sponge gourd and bottle gourd witnessed substantial hike.
But he pointed out that compared to the hike in prices of veg at present in rural areas, the prices are much higher in Dhaka and Chattogram cities.
He said currently, pointed gourd was selling at Tk 22-24 a kg at Manikganj which is sold at Tk 40-44 a kg at Karwan Bazar wholesale and Tk 50-60 a kg at retail markets.
Bitter gourd was trading at Tk 34-35 a kg at Mahasthan in Bogura which is retailing at Tk 70- 85 a kg in the capital, he said.
Prices of broiler chicken increased slightly by Tk 5.0 a kg and sold at Tk 130-135 a kg on Thursday.
But the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) claimed that the current broiler chicken price is 4.0 per cent lower compared to that a year back.
Garlic prices showed a Tk 10 decline and was selling at Tk 140- 160 a kg. Loose soybean oil was selling at Tk 78- 80 a litre on the day. Its price witnessed a Tk 2.0-3.0 fall at per kg.
