Vegetables witnessed a notable rise in prices last week increasing woes of the commoners further.
Costs of vegetables increased by Tk 10-20 a kg in the last seven days amid declining supply of summer crops, said traders.
Market observers, however, found that higher price gap between farm level and city retails helped shoot the price up augmenting sufferings of the consumers, especially the low-income group, already hit by price hike of other essential items. Green papaya, which was one of the cheapest vegetables in the year, was sold at Tk 45-60 a kg in different kitchen markets of the city on Thursday.
Most of the seasonal vegetables, including pointed gourd, pumpkin, ridge, sponge gourds, summer brinjal and bitter gourd, showed considerable hike as they were selling at Tk 60-80 a kg on the day.
Stored tomato was seilling at Tk 130-150 per kg.
Prices of snake gourd, eddo and clocasia stems remained static at their previous high-Tk 50-60 a kg.
All kinds of leafy also witnessed a price surge as were selling at Tk 15-35 per bunch based on species.
Borhan Uddin, a vegetable vendor at Mohammadi Housing Kitchen Market at Mohammadpur, said he bought bitter gourd at Tk 310 per five kg (known as palla) from Sadek Khan Krishi Market in Rayer Bazar-Beribadh area on the day which was Tk 250 a week back.
Brinjal prices increased by Tk 8-10 per kg at wholesales. The vegetable was selling at Tk 48-56 per kg based on varieties.
"We are selling different kinds of brinjal at Tk 60-75 a kg", said Borhan.
Mamun Ali, a Karwan Bazar-based trader, said supply of summer vegetables started declining from the hubs like Dhaka (Dhamrai, Savar, Dohar, Nawabganj, Keraniganj), Narsingdi, Manikganj, Mymensingh, Cumilla and Jashore.
He said supply from other hubs like Gaibandha, Bogura, Sirajganj and Jamalpur have severely been disrupted this year amid a month-long flood.
Mamun said prices of vegetables might remain higher for the next two-and-a-half months till early winter crops hit the market.
Assistant director of Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) T M Rashed Khan acknowledged the price hike at village level. But he also mentioned that the price gap between farm level and Dhaka city retail markets is much higher.
He said bitter gourd was selling at Tk 35-36 a kg at Mahasthan in Bogura for the last three days when the same produce was traded at Tk 54-55 a kg at the capital's Karwan Bazar wholesale on Thursday.
Bitter gourd was retailed at Tk 70 a kg at Bonolota Bazar in Dhaka's New Market area on the day, he said.
"Something is happening with most of the other vegetables as we found 70-120 per cent of price gaps between the farm level and Dhaka retail," he observed.
He said the (agricultural marketing) department everyday sends a logical price tag of vegetables (for hanging) at key city kitchen markets.
"But no one is maintaining the price fixed by the DAM amid lack of monitoring," he added.
Meanwhile, prices of sugar increased further as the sweetener was sold at Tk 60-65 a kg at retail markets.
Imported varieties of garlic and ginger - the two main cooking ingredients, showed a slight decline during the period but still were selling at their previous highs of Tk 150-200 per kg.
